CAPERCAILLIE 21 



cause. Shooters who have experienced this grievance 

 can well understand how annoying it is to see covers, 

 which they knew a few days previously were teeming 

 with birds, a day or two after utterly destitute of living 

 creatures of any sort. 



This partial migration usually takes place just at the 

 very time when you think the auspicious moment has at 

 length arrived when you are going to have a "field-day" 

 amongst them ; and many a shooting tenant has returned 

 home on the evening of an unsuccessful day and. given his 

 keeper a good all-round " talking to " for saying there 

 were heaps of birds when the reverse was the case, whilst 

 the guests have departed inwardly anathematising Caper- 

 shooting and voting it a snare and a delusion. But, per- 

 haps, this delightful state of uncertainty constitutes half 

 the charm of this sport ; for it is no matter of surprise to 

 a man who is accustomed to it if no birds come forward, 

 and when he has a really good stand at which he gets a 

 number of shots he knows thoroughly how to appreciate 

 it ; and he who is not prepared for disappointments at 

 those times when he has probably formed the most 

 sanguine ideas of success is not the one for this truly 

 noble sport. 



Sometimes the birds will remain away on the hill-faces 

 for a month or two before they return. There they get 

 abundant feeding among the larches and are loth to leave 

 them for the acorns and beech-mast that they get down in 



/ <_? 



the woods below during winter. But things generally 

 manage to balance themselves in the long-run, for the 

 low-ground birds bring with them a few of their friends 

 with whom they have lately been staying, thus more or 



