CAPERCAILLIE. 47 



Inverness. It is true that Graves, writing in 1813, mentions 

 two males shot respectively about six years, and two years 

 previously, the latter by Captain Stanton, near Burrowsto- 

 ness ; but there is really no satisfactory account of its occur- 

 rence from the time of Pennant until its restoration in the 

 present century. The causes of its extinction had probably 

 been at work for a considerable time ; the principal ones 

 being the destruction of large tracts of pine forests by fire 

 to get rid of wolves, and other "vermin"; the wasteful 

 destruction of timber, and the altered conditions thereby 

 produced. In Ireland, where it certainly existed, although 

 Giraldus Cambrensis, Willughby and Kay give little but its 

 name, similar causes led to its extermination. Writing in 

 1772, J. Rutty (Nat. Hist, of the County of Dublin, i. 

 p. 302) says, " one was seen in the county of Leitrim about 

 the year 1710 ; but they have entirely disappeared, owing to 

 the destruction of our woods." Pennant also states that 

 about 1760 a few were to be found about Thomastowu, in 

 Tipperary ; and Longfield, in his treatise on ' The Game 

 Laws in Ireland,' says that the " Wild Turkeys " of Act 

 George III. must have been Capercaillies ; adding that they 

 were not extinct so late as 1787.* After careful investiga- 

 tion of the existing evidence, Professor Newton is of opinion 

 that the si3ecies was exterminated about the same time in 

 both Scotland and Ireland ; the original British race becom- 

 ing wholly extinct, and no remains of it being known to exist 

 in any museum. f 



As regards the occurrence of the Capercaillie in England, 

 within the last two years Mr. James Backhouse, of York, has 

 discovered in the caves of the mountain-limestone of Teesdale, 

 at an elevation of about 1,600 feet, numerous bones, which 

 have been pronounced by Professor Newton to be those of this 

 species. In a letter to the Editor, Mr. Backhouse writes as 

 follows : " Among these [bones] is one nearly perfect humerus 

 belonging to a male bird of full size ; others, less perfect, to 

 the female of ordinary size ; whilst others, again, are smaller 

 than those of the type. From the abundance of the remains 



* J. A. Ilaivie-Brown, ojh cit. p. 154. f Encyc. Brit. Ed. 0, v. p. 54. 



