134 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



done by the beetle in the middle of summer, and the most 

 serious injury is done by the bird in the winter, when the 

 beetles are hybernating in, or on, dead wood on the ground. 



" The beetle attacks almost any pine tree, sick or healthy, 

 any size or any age ; only, as it climbs from the ground to the 

 branches, small trees, say under 25 years of age, are those 

 commonly attacked. Capercaillies, on the other hand, attack 

 only healthy trees of any size or age, and will, in some in- 

 stances, return to the same tree for days continuously, till it is 

 completely stripped of its buds or growing points, and, of course, 

 most seriously injuring it, and rendering it perfectly useless for 

 timber. If the bird is kept within due limits (in numbers), 

 the injury they do is immaterial to the general welfare of our 

 forests ; but if they become very numerous, they will cer- 

 tainly play havoc with the pine and larch plantations in their 

 neighbourhood, especially young plantations. Black game, 

 at certain seasons, are just about as injurious to young pine 

 and larch trees." The above remarks by Mr. Dunn were 

 evoked by special queries which I put to him regarding the 

 possibility existing of the buds affected by the pine beetle 

 being those chosen by the Capercaillie. As has been seen, 

 Mr. Dunn is of the opinion that the bird prefers " clean, 

 healthy, fresh food," and has " no taste for damaged or decaying 

 vegetation of any kind." He does not consider that insects 

 of any kind form part of their food, but he at the same time 

 states that he " never examined the crop of a young bird 

 taken out of the nest." 



In this connection Mr. D. Brown, formerly naturalist for 

 many years in Perth, writes that he has" stuffed very nearly *700 

 Capercaillies during the last twenty-two years," and "not in one 

 single instance have I observed any form of insect in the very 

 many crops I have emptied for inflation, or which may have 

 burst during the operation of skinning the birds." Mr. D. 

 Brown's and Mr. Dunn's evidence, however, must only be 



