22 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



Mr. Harting (' Hand Book of British Birds' p. 38) says : — 

 " One of the last native birds killed was shot at Chisholme 

 Park, Inverness, and is l)elieved to be in tlie Museum at 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne;" but it would have been better liad 

 the grounds for this belief been stated. Later, Professor 

 Newton (^ Encyc. Brit* 9th ed., art. * Caper calhf) says : — "No 

 Britisli specimen known to exist in any museum" — i.e., no 

 specimen of tlie in(li<;enous stock (^. 54). In reply to in- 

 quiries for further particulars. Professor Newton referred me 

 to Fox's * Synopsis of the Newcastle Miiseum! p. 78. On re- 

 ferring to the passage, I find that Fox was " unable to make 

 out if the present specimen \i.e., the male specimen in the 

 museum. — J. A. H. B.] be really of British capture." Pro- 

 fessor Newton, commenting on this specimen, writes to me : — 

 " All that seems certain is, that the specimen at Newcastle 

 was once Tunstall's, and that Tunstall, who was aware of the 

 increasing rarity of the species in Scotland, does not say that 

 he had a Scottish example ; while he mentions one in his 

 possession from Siberia, and also that he had had it from 

 Denmark. Tliis last, by the way, was most likely of Swedish 

 or Nonvegian origin, for the bird has been extinct in Den- 

 mark so long, that Steenstrup's discovery of its bones in a 

 kitchen -midden was looked upon with almost as much in- 

 terest as liis finding the Garefowl's remains there" {vide 

 antca,]). 115). Professor Newton furtlier remarks (in lit.): — 

 " Fox, I believe, is mistaken in considering the female Wood 

 Grouse in tlie British Museum to be a British specimen from 

 Bullock's collection (/. c.). It is entered in the B. M. catalogue 

 as from Montagu's collection. Now, Montagu never mentions 

 a Scottisli specimen; and as in 1789 — when the species was 

 almost or quite extinct in Scotland — he was only beginning 

 a jtroviiicial collection, it is most unlikely that he coulil liave 

 suppHed liimself with one. Tu Bullock's sale catalogue tliere 

 is no evidence of his liaviug a Scotch specimen, and he 



