DUVAR ON ADDITIONS TO GAME OF NOVA SCOTIA. 65 



it ranges on the mountains from Iceland to the Alps.* Every- 

 where in Nova Scotia are to be found those rugged granite 

 wilds such as are its haunts in Scotland and Norway. The severity 

 of our climate is not greater than its European experience. In sum- 

 mer, it would find varied sustenance on the moors, and in winter 

 the birds, like other winged game, would sustain themselves with 

 their proper food of buds, berries and leaves of trees. As they 

 associate in flocks and may be taken in snares, there would be but 

 slight difficulty in importing a sufficient number to experiment 

 upon. A yet finer bird than the ptarmigan is the capercailzie 

 (Tetrao urogaUus), the very king of feathered game. This splen- 

 did fowl is still common in Sweden and Russia, and could be, and 

 ought to be, a splendid addition to our birds of the chase. As it 

 lays from eight to a dozen eggs, and the young are hardy as well 

 as active in foraging for themselves, three or four years' protection 

 should suffice to form the nucleus of a preserve, especially as man 

 would be the chief enemy so large a bird would have to fear. An 

 importation from Norway could be made without extraordinary 

 expense. Should we ever have an acclimatization society in this 

 Province, or should it fall within the scope of the Society for the 

 Protection of Game, the capercailzie would probably be the first 

 importation to which they would turn their attention with hopes of 

 success. The black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) is another pleasing game 

 bird, susceptible of naturalization here. The black grouse could 

 live on the edge of our swamps and cranberry or blueberry barrens, 

 and would put through the winter on juniper and beech buds and 

 mast. For most part of the year they are wary, and afford capital 

 sport. The principal British bird of game has yet to be noticed — 

 the grouse proper (lagojnis scoticus), the red grouse, locally called 

 the muirfowl or gorcock. There are great doubts whether it would 

 be possible to stock our barrens, even were its haunts as rigorously 

 preserved as are the moors at home. True grouse seem to 

 thrive nowhere but among the Scotch heather, the bells of which 

 form their principal food, — although I have shot these birds when 

 they were pilfering oats from late reaped fields on the edge of the 

 moorland. Considering the almost impossibility of protecting them 

 in a wild state, at the same time that they are quite susceptible of 



*It is also found in Newfoundland. 



