CANVAS-BA CK—CAPERCALL Y 



applied to almost any small bird that is yellow, and not unfrequently 

 to some that are not. Thus in the Antilles the name is given to 

 certain species of Dendrceca (AVarbler), in the Cape Colony to 

 Serimis canicollis, the " Cape Canary," and some of the Ploceidx 

 (Weaver-bird),^ in New Zealand to the Clitonyx ochrocephala, while 

 in some districts of Australia the Budjerigar is known as the 

 " Canary-Parrot." 



CANVAS-BACK, generally with the addition of " Duck," the 

 A7ias vallisneria of Wilson, Fidigulci or ^-Ethyia vallisneriana of 

 modern ornithology, the North-American bird so famous for its 

 delicate flavour — -nearly allied to the Pochard. 



CAPERCALLY or CAPERCAILLIE, a word commonly 

 derived from the Gaelic Cajmll, a horse (or, more properly, a mare), 

 and Coille, the genitive of coll, a wood ; but with greater likelihood, 

 according to the opinion with which I was favoured by Dr. 

 M'Lauchlan, from Cahher, an old man (and, by metaphor, an old 

 bird), and Coille — the name of the largest species of Teiraonidx 

 (G-ROUSE), Tetrao urogalhis, Avhich was formerly indigenous to the 

 north of England, to Scotland, and to Ireland. The word is 

 frequently spelt other'SA'ise, as Capercalze and Capercailzie (the z, a 

 letter unknown in Gaelic, being pronounced like y), and the English 

 name of Wood-Grouse or Cock-of-the-wood has been often applied 

 to the same bird. The earliest notice of it as an inhabitant of 

 North Britain seems to be by Hector Boethius, whose works were 

 published in 1526, and it can then be traced through various 

 Scottish writers, though to them it was e\'idently but little 

 known, for about 200 years, or may be more.- However, Bishop 

 Lesly, in 1578, assigned a definite habitat to it: — "In Eossia 

 quoque Louquhabria [Lochaber], atque aliis montanis locis " (De 

 Origine Moribiis et rebus gestis Scotorum. Romse : ed. 1675, p. 24). 

 Taylor, the water-poet, in his Visit to the Brea of Marr (JForks, 

 London: 1630, p. 135) mentions, " caperkellies " among the meats 

 provided for the guests of Lord Erskine in 1618; and The Black 

 Book of Taymoidh tells (pp. 433, 434) of one that was sent in 1651 

 by the laird of Glenorchy to King Chai^les II, who, being then 

 at Perth, "accepted it weel as a raretie, for he had never seen 

 any of them." Pennant, duiing his first tour in Scotland, found 

 that it was then (1769) still to be met with in Glen Moriston and 

 in the Chisholm's country, whence he saw a cock-bird. We may 

 infer that it became extinct about that time, since Robert Gi'ay 

 {Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 229) quotes the Rev. John Grant 



^ A species of Laniarius, one of the Shrikes, credited with preying upon 

 some of these little birds, is known as Canariebyter (Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 164). 



- For particulars the reader is referred to Mr. Harvie-Brown's careful volume 

 Thx Capercaillic in Scotland (Edinburgh : 1879). 



