CAPERCAILLIE SHOOTING 
I T is somewhat unfortunate that no law has been passed regulating 
the shooting of the Capercaillie to a season suitable to its position as 
a bird of game, it being one of the best we now have, although at 
first its apparent clumsiness and size might suggest the reverse. 
Capercaillie have increased somewhat slowly since their re-introduc- 
tion, and those sportsmen who could indulge in its chase have, until 
recently, been few, and of little account, politically speaking ; wherefore 
the great grouse has remained in the position of any ordinary wild bird, 
which may be shot from August 1 to March 1. This is not fair, because it 
induces young sportsmen, who love to fire at anything that flies, however 
slowly, to shoot them too soon, and game salesmen to purchase, and ex- 
pose them for sale in August, when they are, it must be admitted, at 
their best, from a culinary point of view. On the other hand, if shooting 
takes place in August the birds which are killed are almost invariably 
old females and young, a proportion of which, at least ought to be spared. 
Moreover the female Capercaillie and young rising singly out of dense 
raspberries at a distance of fifteen yards, and flying slowly straight away, 
are not such game as any shooter, in the proper sense of the word, is 
proud to kill. 
In the older forests of Perthshire, where Capercaillie shooting has been 
practised for fifty years and more, only a few are killed early in the season, 
and these are generally outlying birds tempted to make a meal of cran- 
berry and blaeberry on the open edge of the wood, where black -game or 
even grouse are to be found. They meet their death in ignominious fashion 
because they afford that pleasing variety to the bag so keenly desired by 
some sportsmen. 
Capercaillie have now extended their range, to a great extent, within 
the last ten years, and have crossed into Aberdeenshire via Forfarshire, 
and made their way up through Nairn to Ross -shire, so that it is not too 
much to say that in the near future the species will be common in nearly 
the whole of the forest areas of Scotland where it receives protection. 
This is a satisfactory outlook for the shooter because, for the most 
part, the great forests of Scotland are devoid of any game suitable to 
sport with the gun, except a few mountain and brown hares and rabbits. 
When woods become old, black-game desert them, but not so Capercaillie, 
which often obtain their food on the largest Scotch firs, and will make 
these great silent columns of timber their home. It is too much to expect 
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