CAPERCAILLIE SHOOTING 
a very large wood, but it is well that they should all be experienced men 
who know the ground, and will keep a good line. Uniformity of line is far 
more important in this form of sport than a straggling line with numbers 
who always make too much noise. The head keeper having given the guns 
adequate time to allow them to get into position, should himself direct 
the beat from the centre, using a whistle or small horn to work his flanks 
if he finds the right or the left getting too far forward. The line should 
advance slowly, each beater tapping on the bark of the fir trees as he 
passes them. The old cocks are nearly always the first to move, and 
will often leave a wood on the very first tap of a beater’s stick half a 
mile away. 
I remember once at Murthly that we were about to drive a part of the 
big wood in which I knew there were only three old cocks. It was not 
my intention that these birds should come to me, and I had only just 
posted the last gun and was walking to my position on the right flank 
when, on looking up, I saw two of the cocks almost over my head. I killed 
them both, and saw the third pass over the head of the shooter next to 
me. He had not observed it, and had in fact laid his gun on the ground, 
not expecting game so soon. 
It is generally when the beaters have reached a point half way through 
the beat that Capercaillie begin to show up. If there is a wood behind the 
guns they pass straight on, and are quite fearless of shots once they have 
made up their minds where to go. If the drive is on a steep hill side it is 
not uncommon to see them coming over at a great height, sometimes 
higher than any pheasants, and I have even seen them at Rohallion, Struan, 
Monzie, and Lady well, quite out of shot. In the lower woods of Aberdeen, 
Stirling, Forfar, etc.. Earn and Tay valleys. Capercaillie are never 
very high, but generally offer a fair shot at a reasonable height. In 
large isolated woods in which the birds are accustomed to pass the 
whole year, they are generally loath to leave, and when driven forward 
they come to the end and swing up hill or down hill, and away back again 
over the beaters. In many cases they alight in the high branches of the 
trees immediately in front of the shooters who are often placed outside 
the wood. This is a mistake, because a fair shot is seldom obtained. It 
is better to place the guns in spots from which they can see about fifty to 
a hundred yards just inside the wood, where chances are obtained before 
the birds settle or break back. 
What used to be one of the best isolated woods in Scotland for Caper- 
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