DAMAGE TO FORESTS. . 141 



tinguish those which had been used for that purpose, as the 

 tops were bent down by the weight of the birds." If the 

 bird does so at " lek," there is a probability that it will also 

 do so at feeding-time. The general impression seems to be 

 that it is only older wood that is attacked, and quite a num- 

 ber of my correspondents seem to be of this opinion, the dam- 

 age done to young plants being not infrequently put to the 

 charge of black game. 



The editor of the Swedish hunting journal, ' Nya Yagore 

 Forbundets Tidskrift? Stockholm, expresses his opinion in a 

 letter to Herr Dr. Meves, that " there is certainly a local 

 damage observed and complained of " in Sweden, " viz., in 

 young plantations, where the plants are a foot or two in height. 

 The havoc then done by the old male Capercaillie is some- 

 times considerable." Dr. Meves writes to me that his son 

 "The Inspector of Forests" told him that there "is very 

 rarely any complaint about damage done to young plantations 

 by wood grouse." 



I read and studied a little book ' The Larch Disease' 

 by Charles Macintosh (Edinburgh, 1860), with a view to 

 obtaining parallel hints as to the natural history of the 

 Scots fir. Eeading this book rather strengthened my sus- 

 picions, and the statements of several correspondents (op. 

 cit. p. 15, et seqq.) regarding imported seed, unhealthy seed- 

 lings, southerly exposures, hot suns, and late frosts, having 

 something to do with the stunted appearance of some 

 plantations. Accordingly, I wrote to Mr. John Hancock, of 

 Newcastle, who being both a good ornithologist and experi- 

 enced arboriculturist, would be likely to afford me good and 

 unbiassed information. 



The facts I have gathered from a correspondence with 

 Mr. Hancock, and later correspondence, are as follows : 



There is a stunted form of fir supplied by nurserymen, 

 which never makes a tree, but remains a dwarf, and bears 



