114 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



forests of the British Isles. Probably owing to the fell- 

 ing of these forests, among other causes, it had become 

 scarce by about the middle of the seventeenth century. 

 During the following century it became extinct, 1760 

 in Ireland and 1770 in Scotland being the approximate 

 dates of the last records. The Capercaillie has therefore 

 an undoubted right to a place as a former British-breed- 

 ing bird ; but it has in addition its status as a success- 

 fully reintroduced species. It is probable that a few 

 birds continued to exist in the British Isles for some 

 years after the dates mentioned, but it cannot be doubted 

 that they had completely died out long before the first 

 introduction from Sweden in 1837. The indigenous strain 

 is therefore totally extinct. 



Perthshire and Forfarshire have been the areas of natu- 

 ralisation of these foreign birds ; but from these localities 

 they have now spread over the greater part of the central 

 division of Scotland, and the spreading is still continuing 

 prosperously under the modern methods of game-preserving. 

 Indeed, in some areas the pine-forests are fully stocked, 

 and the birds are beginning to occupy the less congenial 

 haunts of oak and birch woods. One interesting point 

 about the spread is that the hens appear in a new area 

 a couple of years before any males are seen. During 

 this period they mate freely with Blackcock and others. 

 Hybrids between various British Game-birds occur pretty 

 frequently, it may here be mentioned. 



That the hens should be the first to colonise new areas 

 is all the more remarkable because the cock Capercaillie, 

 like his smaller cousin, is polygamous. One would expect 

 young males unable to procure mates to be the first to 

 roam. In other respects the nesting habits of the two 

 species are also very similar. The cock Capercaillie has 

 a similar ' spel ^ ; his mates each lay from six to twelve 



