Sept, ic, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
433 
THE COCK OF THE WOODS. 
Most gunners are familiar with the method 
adopted in foreign countries when capercaillie 
are the objective of the gunner. The sport is 
mainly confined to the early part of the breed¬ 
ing season, when the cock birds are stalked as 
they sit upon the trees in the early morning or 
in the evening, and shot with the rifle or with 
the gun charged with large shot. The process 
seems a little unfair, but two things must be 
remembered. First, the capercaillie is the most 
wide-awake of wary birds, and unless he is ap¬ 
proached by strategy there is in most cases 
very little chance of getting a shot at him at 
all. Secondly, even when it is desired to in¬ 
crease his numbers, it is politic to shoot down 
a somewhat large proportion of the male birds. 
Capercaillie are polygamous, and a limited sup¬ 
ply of cocks is therefore sufficient to maintain 
the breed. Furthermore, if too many of the 
older male birds are left in any particular dis¬ 
trict, they drive away all their younger rivals 
and so hinder the most advantageous system of 
propagation. Probably one of the chief reasons 
why capercaillie do not increase more rapidly 
in Scotland is that the old cocks are not suffici¬ 
ently thinned out, the usual system of driving 
being practically useless for effecting this pur¬ 
pose. It is not often that an old capercaillie 
will suffer himself to be driven to the guns. 
The best way of circumventing the wily caper¬ 
caillie. therefore, is to place the guns in am¬ 
bush at various points of the beat and not any¬ 
where in the open at the end of it. according 
to the usual method adopted in driving or beat¬ 
ing. Capital sport has been obtained in this 
way in those districts where the birds are fairly 
numerous, and a great deal more might be done 
if the capercaillie were encouraged to establish 
itself in such places as seem to fulfill its re¬ 
quirements.' The male of this species is polyg¬ 
amous, so that with an approved system of 
management it is not difficult to increase its 
numbers, the two things necessary being a mod¬ 
erate. supply of young and vigorous cocks and 
as many hens as the ground will carry. The 
males are not often seen in the company of the 
female except in the breeding season, and as 
the sexes are readily distinguished at the long¬ 
est possible ranges the keeping down of the 
cocks is not a difficult matter. It is. of course, 
but little good trying to bag so robust a bird 
as this with an ordinary game charge, the size 
of shot usually recommended being No. 1 or 
even BB. With the former the capercaillie may 
be bagged up to about 25 or 30 yards and with 
the latter five yards or so further. 
In his domestic habits the cock capercaillie 
is the personification of selfishness. During the 
early part of the breeding season, when he is 
busy displaying the charm of his handome per¬ 
sonality to an admiring circle of his lady ac¬ 
quaintances. he is the most jealous creature in 
the world, his motto in the matter of wives be¬ 
ing “the more the merrier.” But after he has 
married every lady within reach and sent her off 
about her business of nest-making, he returns 
to his gay bachelor existence and does not care 
to be troubled with the many anxieties of rear¬ 
ing a family. The hen capercaillie is reputed to 
be a. good mother. She lays anything from eight 
to sixteen eggs, which she usually hatches with 
good success, and enters upon her maternal 
cares with the greatest assiduity. Her nest, if 
such it can be called, is simply an untidy de¬ 
pression in the undergrowth of the wood, and 
her eggs, which vary somewhat in color, but 
are generally of a reddish brown splotched with 
a darker shade, are not easily distinguishable 
from their surroundings. Occasional instances 
of the capercaillie nesting off the ground have 
been reported, and Dr. Latham speaks of one 
nest that was found among the boughs of a 
pine treet in a Scottish forest. 
Before concluding these notes on “The Cock 
of. the Woods” one ought to quote one or two 
of the poetical allusions that have been made to 
the king of British game birds. Some striking 
passages have been written to the honor and 
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