112 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



prove ; and tliis, I think, will become patent to any one wLo 

 studies tlieir distribution. If, on the one hand, they are forced 

 to leave by the older and stronger birds, still they will leave 

 in those directions which are most likely to meet the require- 

 ments of the species, and, as I have already pointed out, I 

 believe that the birds have great power of vision, and use this 

 in an appreciable degree when on a pioneering journey. 



Birds, and especially females, are thus often shot or seen 

 in localities totally unsuited to their habits — no doubt resting, 

 as I have already indicated, during their tour of inspection. 

 Amongst such locahties may be instanced a bare moor or 

 open common,^ a patch of wood, of an acre or two in extent, 

 in the middle of a bare mountain glen,^ or even in the 

 crowded thoroughfares of a large town.^ There is evidence 

 in some cases of these pioneers having been assisted in their 

 travels by long-continuing gales. Thus, about the first bird 

 shot in Fife — in 1863 — at EankeiUor, near Cupar, arrived 

 towards the end of a gale wliich had been blowing for some 

 days from the north ; and several other instances could be 

 cited. 



The females precede the males by from one to two years, 

 and establishment of the species takes place very shortly 

 after the arrival of the males, and from two to four years 

 after the fu-st appearance of the females — i.e., where establish- 

 ment does follow {vide Tables given below). 



In the comparatively few mstances in which males are 

 first observed, it may be inferred, in most cases, that the 

 females had arrived from one to two years previously, and 

 had escaped observation, or that the males had wandered 

 during their search for their pioneers. In certain districts, 

 where there is only a limited population at the centre, a 



^ Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire, for example — a bare grass common, with 

 a few scattered whin bushes — used to hold markets upon. 



2 As Glen Queich, and many others in Perthshire and other counties. 

 ^ In Edinburgh {vide under Midlothian, antca, p. 89). 



