38 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



He describes it as being most intensely exciting, and re- 

 quiring quite as much knowledge and observation as deer- 

 stalking. The cock Capers, he says, in some districts, 

 where they are in the habit of being stalked and shot at 

 regularly, display an extraordinary amount of vigilance 

 and cunning, particularly in adopting the following dodge. 

 The stalkers are able to advance only during the time the 

 bird is completing the last few bars of his song, and at this 

 moment, after taking two or three steps forward, they are 

 generally well in the open, and would at once be observed 

 by the quarry if he were to suddenly cease his music. 

 This is just what a natural instinct has taught him to do, 

 warning him that this is the real moment of danger, and 

 having been previously stalked he has thus acquired an 

 intuitive caution that almost amounts to a reasoning 

 power. Thus it often happens that the unfortunate 

 sportsman is discovered when in the act of making his run 

 forward, and the would-be victim lives to be stalked 

 another day. 1 



At the latter end of April the hens draw in towards 

 their breeding-grounds, and may be seen sitting in little 

 parties together on the larch trees, of the shoots of which 

 they are especially fond at this season of the year. Here, 

 too, in chosen spots, generally some open piece of rising 

 ground in a grass park near their haunts, come the cocks 

 to settle their little differences of opinion with regard 

 to their respective claims to the fair ladies. Many 

 and fierce are the battles engaged in during the early 



1 I have never found much difficulty in approaching the cock Caper- 

 caillie in Scotland in the spring. If ordinary care be taken, the sportsman 

 or observer, as the case may be, can generally approach to within fifty yards 

 of the bird when engaged in his love-song. 



