CAPERCAILLIE. 49 



along the Cantabrian range. Passing eastward again, it is 

 found in the Carpathians, and, probably, in portions of the 

 Balkans ; but Dr. Kriiper has failed to discover any evidence 

 of its reported occurrence in Akarnania ; a few stragglers 

 are said to be found in Bessarabia on the northern side of 

 the Black Sea, but it does not reach to the Caucasus. In 

 Asiatic Siberia, as represented by a very grey form, it 

 is resident in suitable localities as far east as Lake Baikal ; 

 but in Amoorland and Kamtchatka its place is occupied 

 by a distinct species, Tetrao urogalloides of Middendorf 

 (not to be confounded with the ^'Tetrao, hyhridus, Urogal- 

 loides"^ or T. uroc/alUdesf of Nilsson, which is a hybrid 

 between the Black-cock and the hen Capercaillie). The 

 real Tetrao urogalloides of Middendorf is a more slender 

 bird : the head and neck are rich purple-blue, in which re- 

 spect alone it resembles the above-mentioned hybrid ; the 

 wing-coverts and tertials are much margined with white, 

 and the upper tail-coverts are broadly tipped with the same, 

 and the tail is much longer in proportion and more graduated 

 than in the Capercaillie — not in the least forked, as it is in 

 the hybrid. Owing to the same name having been applied 

 to a genuine, but little-known species, and also to a far more 

 common and well-known hybrid which will be treated later 

 on, much confusion has arisen, and even some recent autho- 

 rities appear to be unaware that T. urogalloides of Eastern 

 Siberia is a perfectly distinct bird from T. urogallus. 



About the end of the year 1827, or early in January, 1828, 

 Lord Fyfe imported a cock and hen from Sweden, only the 

 former of which reached Braemar ; and in 1829 another 

 cock and hen ; but although the latter laid a couple of dozen 

 eggs in the ensuing April, this attempt at restoration was 

 a failure. The probable reasons for this, with a long account 

 of the experiment, are given in Mr. Harvie-Brown's able 

 monograph above cited, and from which many subsequent 

 particulars are taken. Li 1837, however, Lawrance Banville, 

 head keeper to the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, of Nor- 

 folk, was sent over to Venersborg, in Sweden, the residence 



* Skand. Fogl. ii. p. 72 (1835). t Op. cit. ii. p. 73 (1858). 



VOL. III. H 



