CHAPTER XIX. 



LAWS OF EXTENSION OF RANGE. 



The general distribution of the Capercaillie throughout the 

 world is concisely given by Mr. H. E. Dresser in his great 

 work ' TJie Birds of Europe' part xxi.-^ He says : — " This mag- 

 nificent grouse, the largest of its family, is found throughout 

 Northern Europe, and is even met with in the forests on the 

 mountain ranges in the southern or southern- central portions 

 of the Western Palaearctic region." Perhaps the most 

 southerly locality recorded in Europe is Acarnania in Greece 

 {pp. cit.) ^ To the east it extends far into Asia, and has been 

 found to occur as far as the valley of the Irkut ; but in the 

 extreme east of Siberia it becomes partially, if not whoUy, 

 replaced by a smaller species — Tetrao urugalloides of Midden- 

 dorf. Beyond this, in the present connection, it is unneces- 

 sary to enter into detail as regards its distribution outside 

 the limits of Great Britain. 



Within the area of its present range in Scotland, suitable 

 woods — e.g. woods of spruce, Scotch fir, or larch, or of these 

 combined — of 100 acres, or even less in extent, and upwards, 

 are usually inhabited by the species ; the smaller woods hold- 



^ See also Lloyd's ' Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden,'' 1866, p. 2. 



2 Pennant, ^Arctic Zoology,^ 1792, vol. i. p. 365, seems to have traced 

 it as far south as the Archipelago, in the islands of Crete and Milo. Hassel- 

 guist is given as the authority for the bird shot in a i)alm tree in Milo, and 

 Belon for Crete (^ Penny Cycloiiaxlia,'' vol. vi. p. 260). 



