THE CAPERCAILLIE. 219 



courage the hope that a similar attempt would, 

 under certain restrictions, prove equally so with 

 the great game bird of the North. But the 

 wild and roving habits of the capercaillie are 

 less favourable to naturalization in the highly 

 cultivated districts of England than those of the 

 comparatively docile Colchican. The capercaillie 

 is essentially a forester. He shuns the open 

 plain, and scorns such a limited range as could 

 be provided by any artificial plantations for which 

 the heaths and commons of the southern parts of 

 England might be adapted, while in the pine- 

 woods, and extensive tracts of the Highland 

 forests he can yet find space to roam compa- 

 ratively at large. Even the craggy mountains 

 of North Wales would not appear to offer him 

 a favourable resting place, for though their wild 

 grandeur and lofty peaks would seem to have 

 tempted the ptarmigan so peculiarly a moun- 

 taineer in his habits yet from some cause, 

 as yet imperfectly understood, this member of 

 the grouse family seems to have abandoned the 

 Welsh hills ; and even their loftiest eminences, 

 being so bleak and destitute of trees, would fail 

 to attract the capercaillie. Nevertheless, as 

 numerous wide-spreading plantations of larch 

 and fir have of late years been formed on the 

 hill sides, in some of the larger estates of Caer- 



L 2 



