THE GROUSE SUBFAMILY 13 



because the power of flight is developed within a few hours after 

 birth, and long before contour feathers make their appearance on 

 the rest of the body. With the Anatidie the reverse is the case, the 

 wings remaining ridiculously small and downy till the rest of the 

 body is feathered. These differences, of course, are intimately 

 related to the struggle for existence, and will be considered at greater 

 length anon. 



In the matter of coloration and ornamentation, and in their 

 behaviour during the troublous period of courtship, they display an 

 almost inexhaustible variety. 



The wings in all are of a rounded shape, thus, though capable of 

 a high rate of speed, the flight is generally not continued far, though 

 some species are migratory. But even these are birds of relatively 

 poor flight. 



Fortunately for us, the game-birds of these islands afford us 

 information on every one of these varied aspects of life. 



But for the keenness of the sportsman, the largest, if not the 

 handsomest, of our game-birds, the capercaillie, would long since have 

 disappeared from among us, and this because the original wild 

 stock which formerly tenanted the pine forests of the British Islands 

 became exterminated, in England and Wales at some remote period, 

 of which no record remains, and in Scotland and Ireland during the 

 second half of the nineteenth century. But in 1837 it was re- 

 introduced from Sweden into Perthshire, and from thence has now 

 spread over the central districts as far as Loch Lomond, East 

 Stirlingshire, and Fife, Aberdeen, Inverness, and north to Elgin. 

 To-day, probably because the areas of coniferous woods have proved 

 too restricted for the increased population, they have spread into 

 coverts which consist largely of oak and birch. And in this exten- 

 sion of range, in the search for unoccupied breeding territory, be 

 it remarked the females precede the males by one or two years. 

 Thus, lacking males of their own species, they often breed with the 

 blackcock. 



