CAPERCALLY -ji 



as AVTiting in 1794 : — "The last seen in Scotland was in the woods 

 of Sti'athglass about thirty-two years ago." ^ Of its existence in 

 Ireland Ave have scarcely more details. If we may credit the 

 Pavones sylvcstrcs of Giraldus Cambrensis with being of this species, 

 it was once abundant there, and Willughby (1678) was told that it 

 was known in that kingdom as the " Cock-of-the-Avood." A few 

 other writers mention it by the same name, and Eutty, in 1772, 

 says {Nat. Hist. Dublin, i. p. 302) that "one was seen in the county 

 of Leitrim about the year 1710, but they have entirely disappeared 

 of late, by reason of the destruction of our woods." Pennant also 

 states that about 1760 a few Avere to be found about ThomastoAvn 

 in Tipperary, but no later evidence is forthcoming, and thus it 

 Avould seem that the species Avas exterminated at nearly the same 

 period both in Ireland and Scotland. 



That the Cock-of-the-Avood once inhabited England is a dis- 

 covery of recent date. It is stated in The Zoologist for 1879 (p. 468) 

 that its bones had been found among Roman remains at Settle 

 in Yorkshire, though the authority for their determination is not 

 given ; but the present Avriter had the pleasure of receiving from 

 Mr. James Backhouse a considerable number of its bones, some of 

 them unmistakable, found by him in caves that he Avas investigating 

 in Teesdale, and of confirming the conclusion at AA'hich he had 

 already arrived. The remains w^ere those of both sexes, and were 

 sufficiently numerous to sheAV that the species had been common in 

 the neighbourhood, and had contributed not a little to the food of 

 the people Avho in a prehistoric age used the caA^es as dAvellings. 



When the practice of planting Avas introduced, the restoration 

 of this fine bird to both countries Avas attempted. In Ireland the 

 trial, of Avhich some particulars are giA^en by Thompson {B. Ireland, 

 ii. p. 32), Avas made at Glengariff", but it seems to have utterly 

 failed, Avhereas in Scotland, Avhere it AA'as begun in earnest at Tay- 

 mouth in 1838, it finally succeeded, and the species is noAV not 

 only firmly established, but has A^astly increased in numbers and 

 range. Lloyd, the Avell-knoAvn author of seA^eral excellent works 

 on the AA'ild sports and natural history of ScandinaAda, supplied the 

 stock from SAveden, but it must be ahvays borne in mind that the 

 original British race Avas AA'holly extinct, and no recent remains of 

 it are knoAvn to exist in any museum. 



This species is AA'idely, though intermittently, distributed on the 

 continent of Europe, from Lapland to the northern parts of Spain, 

 Italy, and Greece, but is alAA'ays restricted to pine-forests, Avhich 



^ Yet Stephens in his continuation of Shaw's General Zoology (ix. p. 268), 

 writing in 1819, says that Montagu was present "when one was killed near the 

 upper end of Loch Lomond about thirty-five years since." This would mean that 

 the species survived imtil about 1784, but the incident is not mentioned by 

 Montagu in his own work, and the assertion may be doubted. 



