the Cofercatlzie to the Forest of Braemar. 163 



bined, prevented my writing down the result at the time, al- 

 though I have still a distinct recollection of the leading facts*. 



It was, however, with great pleasure that I availed myself, at 

 an after period, of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's obliging offer tp 

 convey a series of queries to Mr Gumming, Allanquoich, Brae- 

 mar, Lord Fyfe's factor, from whom I received the substance of 

 the following information. 



The first importation of these capercailzies arrived from Swe- 

 den about the end of the year 1827, or early in January 1828. 

 It consisted of a cock and hen, but the hen unfortunately died 

 after reaching Montrose Bay. As the male bird alone arrived 

 at Braemar, the experiment was judiciously tried of putting a 

 common barh-door fowl into his apartment 'during the spring 

 and summer of 1828. The result was, that she Imd several 

 eggs, which were placed under other hens, but from these eggs 

 only a single bird was hatched, and when it was first observed 

 it was found lying dead. It was, however an evident mule^ or 

 hybrid, and shewed such unequivocal marks of the capercailzie 

 character as could not be mistaken. 



The second importation likewise consisted of a cock and hen, 

 and arrived safely in this country in January or February 1829. 

 The female began to lay in the ensuing April, and laying in ge- 

 neral an egg every alternate day, she eventually deposited about 

 a couple of dozen. She shewed, however, so strong a disposi- 

 tion to break and eat them, that she required to be narrowly 

 watched at the time of laying, for the purpose of having them 

 removed, for otherwise she would have destroyed the whole. In 



• During our excursion we generally passed over the ground more rapidly 

 than was consistent with entomological observation. The objects sought for 

 by the botanist are generally of larger size, and being also lovers of light and 

 sunshine, they are more easily distinguished than most of the insect tribes, so 

 many of which court concealment and the shade. I was, however, fortunate 

 in obtaining near the Spittal of Glenmuick the scarce heath-butterfly Hippar- 

 chia TyphoTif which I had never before seen alive in Scotland ; and in open 

 glassy glades, among the woods which skirt the right bank of the Dee, between 

 Abergeldy and Invercauld, I captured the rare and beautiful Hipparchia 

 Blandinay commonly called the Scotch Argus, a species hitherto found chiefly 

 in the island of Arran, and not previously known to occur so far north on the 

 mainland. Of the rarer Diptera, Pedicia rivosa may be mentioned as not un- 

 frequent among the woods of Braemar. 



l2 



