46 TETRAONID.^. 



hidden from view bj' small closely-set feathers. Si^ace above the eye naked, the 

 skin red with papilla, and fringed. Wings short, and rounded in form ; the fifth 

 quill-feather the longest. Tail of eighteen feathers. Feet with the toes naked, 

 three in front united as far as the first joint, and one toe behind, short, the edges 

 of all pectinated. Tarsi feathered to the junction of the toes. 



The term Capercaillie, sometimes written Capercally and 

 Capercailzie, is of Gaelic origin, and, as usual, tlie best 

 authorities differ in their interpretation of it. Both the 

 derivation and the orthography are discussed at some length 

 in Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown's excellent monograph entitled 

 ' The Capercaillie in Scotland ' (1879), and, more tersely, 

 by Professor Newton in the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' The 

 balance of authority appears to be in favour of the com- 

 ponent words Cahhar, an old man (and by metaphor an old 

 bird), and Collie, a wood ; i.e. the old bird of the wood. It 

 has also been derived from the Celtic gohur, a horse, or from 

 gahur, a goat ; and, bearing in mind the extension of the 

 feathers on the throat of the male bird, like the beard of a 

 goat, and his amorous behaviour in spring, the derivation 

 seems not unlikely. The Scottish poet Dunbar, who died 

 about 1520, uses Capircalyeane as a term of endearment ; 

 and Hector Boetius, in 1526, alludes to the bird as the 

 Auercalze, or horse of the woods ; it is cited in the bill of 

 fare of the Earl of Atholl when he entertained James V. in 

 1528-29, and by Bishop Lesly in 1578, who was the first to 

 indicate a definite locality — Lochaber — as its abode. In the 

 account given by John Taylor, the Water-poet, of his " visit to 

 the Brea of Marr," in 1618, CajyerkelUes are specified along 

 with " heathcocks and termagants," names which are subse- 

 quently found in some old Acts of the Scottish Parliament, 

 circa 1621, and in some later records, which, however, con- 

 vey little information. In 1651 it was already scarce ; for 

 in the ' Black Book of Taymouth ' a friend of the Laird of 

 Glenorquhy writes to him : "I went and shew your Caper- 

 cailzie to the king in his bedchamber, who accepted it weel 

 as a raretie, for he had never seen any of them before." 

 At the time of Pennant's Tour in Scotland, in 1769, it was 

 nearly extinct, and he appears to have seen only one example, 

 which was killed in the Chisholm's country to the west of 



