336 



EAEL RAVENSWORTH ON THE CAPERCAILZIE. 



male bird survived, and still continues at full liberty and in per- 

 fect health. How long he will so remain I know not, because 

 when the season of courtship returns he becomes so savage that 

 he attacks everybody that comes near, and it is necessary to shut 

 him up in his pen. I really believe he would almost kill a small 

 child, for he is as big and as fierce as an eagle, and can inflict 

 severe wounds with his wings and powerful beak. 



Now comes the present year 1876, and last spring out of twenty 

 eggs we hatched fifteen chicks, and reared to maturity three cocks 

 and four hens, making with the single male bird alluded to eight 

 individuals, four males and four females. All these fine birds 

 existed at Eslington during the whole summer, enjoying their 

 full liberty, and in perfect health, till unhappily one of the fe- 

 males thought fit to extend her flight some ten miles towards 

 "Wooler, and was shot by the gamekeeper near Lilburn Tower. 

 After this casualty we thought it prudent to confine part of the 

 remaining birds of the year, of which two have since died of 

 some disorder which seems to have been produced from some de- 

 ficiency in their diet which we were unable to foresee or to pro- 

 vide remedies for. 



Thus our present stock is reduced to five individuals, three 

 males and two females, which at present are all in good health. 



From this statement it will be manifest that a good deal of 

 bad luck has attended this experiment, in spite of all the care 

 and trouble bestowed upon the rearing of the broods. In the 

 first place, the casual destruction of the male bird in 1872, and 

 secondly the remarkable fact, that not one of the adult birds 

 chose to fly to the particular woods best adapted to their nature, 

 to wit, those of Thrunton and Callaby, though at a distance of 

 little more than a mile in a straight line. On the contrary, they 

 have flown every way but the right one, when it has pleased 

 them to take a long flight, and thus one of the hen birds came 

 to her untimely death. 



To summarize in a few words the character of these peculiar 

 birds, it appears full of contradictions. Powerful and robust 

 when arrived at maturity, they are very delicate and difficult to 

 rear when young. Extremely wild and shy in a wild state, and 



