220 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



narvonshire, Merionethshire, &c., it is not 

 perhaps too much to hope that they may be 

 tenanted in some future day by the gigantic 

 Norwegian. 



Some English proprietors have indeed at- 

 tempted the introduction of the cock of the 

 wood but ineffectually. So many circum- 

 stances must combine to conduct the experiment 

 to a happy issue, that the absence or failure of 

 any of these conditions has in several cases led 

 to disappointment of the most sanguine expecta- 

 tions. One of the most essential requisites how- 

 ever, and that which is absolutely the ( sine qua 

 nonj is a vast range of pine forest : a moderate, 

 or even a wide, extent of moor and heath, though 

 interspersed with large plantations, is insufficient 

 for the bold range of the capercaillie. He is not 

 to be restrained within ordinary boundaries, but 

 soon wanders beyond the circuit of any limited 

 protection ; when his large size, comparatively 

 defenceless habits, and tempting singularity of 

 appearance, expose him to many casualties,* and 



* A friend informs me that "in 1842, or in 1843, Mr. 

 Drummond, M.P. of Albury Park, Surrey, turned down six 

 capercaillie, three cocks and three hens. One cock was killed 

 by a fox the same night that he was turned down, and two 

 hens were shot in the neighbourhood by mistake as unknown 

 birds." 



