48 TETRAONIU^. 



of this bird, and their association with bone implements, 

 there can be no doubt, I think, that the Capercaillie was, 

 in past ages, a common denizen of the forests of the 

 north of England, and was freely used as an article of food 

 by the cave-dwellers. Remains of the Bear, Wolf, Lynx, 

 Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Woodcock, Curlew, Long-eared 

 Owl, and Grej^-lag Goose were found in proximity." This 

 discovery shews that a large portion of the north of England 

 was formerly covered by coniferous woods. Mr. Harting 

 states that bones of the Capercaillie have been found amongst 

 Roman remains at Settle ; and that he has met with old 

 grants {circa 1343-1361) of land in the county of Durham, 

 held by the tenure inter alia of paying " one wode-henne 

 yerely " to the Bishop of Durham for the time being.* 

 There seems to be no other evidence of the existence of the 

 Capercaillie in England, or in Wales, within historic times, 

 beyond the statement by several authorities that it was 

 known to the Britons by the name of Ceiliog Coed. 



In the wooded parts of Scandinavia it is abundant, reaching 

 as far as 70° N. lat., but towards the limits of the pine 

 forests a diminution is observable both in numbers and in 

 size. It is also very numerous in the forests of Russia, 

 as far south as the department of Saratov on the left 

 bank of the Volga, in about 52° N. lat. In Denmark 

 its remains are found in the kitchen-middens of the pre- 

 historic races who inhabited the country when it was 

 covered with the pine forests which have long since given 

 way to the oak and the beech ; and under these altered con- 

 ditions the bird became extinct. Throughout the forests of 

 Northern and Central Germany, Switzerland, Tyrol, and on 

 the pine-clad mountain frontier of North Italy it still exists ; 

 a few still linger in the Vosges and the Jura; and its remains 

 have been obtained in several of the bone-caves of France. 

 From Auvergne it has nearly, if not altogether, disappeared ; 

 and on the northern slope of the Pyrenees it has become 

 somewhat rare, but it is not uncommon in the wild forests on 

 the Spanish side, ranging to the extreme west of the Asturias, 



* Zoologist, 1879, p. 468. 



