22 THE CAPERCAILLTE. 



Mr. Harting (' Hand Booh of British Birds' p. 38) says : — 

 " One of the last native birds killed was shot at Chisholme 

 Park, Inverness, and is believed to be in the Museum at 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne;" but it would have been better had 

 the grounds for this belief been stated. Later, Professor 

 Newton (^ Encyc. Brit.,' 9th ed., art. ' Capercally') says : — "No 

 British specimen known to exist in any museum" — i.e., no 

 specimen of the indigenous stock (p. 54). In reply to in- 

 quiries for further particulars, Professor Newton referred me 

 to Pox's ' Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum' p. 78. On re- 

 ferring to the passage, I find that Pox was " unable to make 

 out if the present specimen [i.e., the male specimen in the 

 museum. — J. A. H. B.] be really of British capture." Pro- 

 fessor Newton, commenting on this specimen, writes to me : — 

 " All that seems certain is, that the specimen at Newcastle 

 was once Tunstall's, and that Tunstall, who was aware of the 

 increasing rarity of the species in Scotland, does not say that 

 he had a Scottish example; while he mentions one in his 

 possession from Siberia, and also that he had had it from 

 Denmark. This last, by the way, was most likely of Swedish 

 or Norwegian origin, for the bird has been extinct in Den- 

 mark so long, that Steenstrup's discovery of its bones in a 

 kitchen -midden was looked upon with almost as much in- 

 terest as -his finding the Garef owl's remains tliere" (vide 

 antca, p. 13). Professor Newton further remarks (m lit): — 

 " Fox, I believe, is mistaken in considering the female Wood 

 Grouse in the British Museum to be a British specimen from 

 Btdloek's collection {I. c.). It is entered in the B. M. catalogue 

 as from Montagu's collection. Now, Montagu never mentions 

 a Scottish specimen; and as in 1789 — when the species was 

 almost or quite extinct in Scotland — he was only beginning 

 a provincial collection, it is most unlikely that he could have 

 supplied himself with one. In Bullock's sale catalogue there 

 is no evidence of his having a Scotch specimen, and he 



