72 CANVAS-BACK—CAPERCALLY 
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 Dendrwca (WARBLER), in the Cape Colony to 
Serinus 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 
Anas vallisneria of Wilson, Fuligula or Althyia 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 Capull, 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 Cabher, an old man (and, by metaphor, an old 
bird), and Coille—the name of the largest species of Tetraonidx 
(GRousE), Zetrao urogallus, which was formerly indigenous to the 
north of England, to Scotland, and to Ireland. The word is 
frequently spelt otherwise, 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 evidently but little 
known, for about 200 years, or may be more.? However, Bishop 
Lesly, in 1578, assigned a definite habitat to it:—‘In Rossia 
quoque Louquhabria [Lochaber], atque, aliis montanis locis” (De 
Origine Moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum. Rome: ed. 1675, p. 24). 
Taylor, the water-poet, in his Visit to the Brea of Marr (Works, 
London: 1630, p. 135) mentions, “ caperkellies” among the meats 
provided for the guests of Lord Erskine in 1618; and The Black 
Book of Taymouth tells (pp. 433, 434) of one that was sent in 1651 
by the laird of Glenorchy to King Charles I], who, being then 
at Perth, “accepted it weel as a raretie, for he had never seen 
any of them.” Pennant, during 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 Gray 
(Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 229) quotes the Rev. John Grant 
1 A species of Laniarius, one of the SurikeEs, credited with preying upon 
some of these little birds, is known as Canariebyter (Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 164). 
2 For particulars the reader is referred to Mr. Harvie-Brown’s careful volume 
The Capercaillie in Scotland (Edinburgh : 1879). 
