CAPERCAILLIE 3 



white, and a white bar of irregular shape also traverses the middle of 

 the tail, which is elsewhere black. A dark glossy green bar runs 

 across the fore part of the breast ; the abdomen is white ; the legs are 

 covered with long hair-like feathers ; and the toes are fringed with 

 scales showing a comb-like arrangement. Young males in first plum- 

 age resemble females ; at the next moult the adult dress is assumed, 

 but it is three years before the full weight is attained, or the white bar 

 on the tail completed. The female may be distinguished from the 

 greyhen by her rounded tail and larger size. Further distinguishing 

 marks are the triangular rufous patch at the base of the neck, and the 

 colour of the greater coverts, which are black tipped with white. The 

 back is mottled with light yellow and large blotches of black ; and the 

 feathers on the under-parts are buff, with a subterminal bar of black, 

 and broad white tips. The chick is light buff, with a black horse- 

 shoe mark on the forehead, the crown variegated with black, and the 

 back tinged with white and showing indistinct black mottlings. 



The meaning of the name capercaillie is somewhat doubtful, but 

 it probably signifies " bird-of-the-wood," although it has been translated 

 as " horse-of-the- woods." The range of the species originally extended 

 from the British Islands to north-eastern Turkestan, the Altai and 

 Lake Baikal ; but the bird was exterminated — probably to a great 

 extent owing to the felling of the pine-forests which form its habitat — 

 in the British Islands during the eighteenth century, although it has 

 been reintroduced with fair success into Perthshire, Forfarshire, and 

 the neighbouring districts. So early as the middle of the seventeenth 

 century this magnificent bird had already become scarce in Great 

 Britain, and it was probably killed out, even in Scotland, by about the 

 year 1770. The discovery of its bones in a cave near Teesdale proves 

 its former abundance in Yorkshire. In Ireland a few capercaillie 

 survived in the neighbourhood of Thomastown, County Tipperary, 

 till about the year 1760; and the species probably still existed in 

 some parts of the country ten or twenty years later, but there is no 

 evidence that it lingered at the dawn of the nineteenth century. 

 Three other species of capercaillie respectively inhabit the Ural 

 Range, north-eastern Siberia, and Kamchatka. In Scandinavia the 

 capercaillie ranges to 70"' north latitude, but diminishes both in 

 numbers and in bodily size as the limits of the pine-woods are 

 approached. 



The nest consists of nothing more than a scantily lined hollow 

 scratched in the ground, and usually well concealed from view. The 

 eggs are very similar to those of the greyhen, but larger ; their colour 



