116 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



three localities are situated respectively about 17|- miles as 

 the crow flies, 28 miles, and 38 miles, from the centre of 

 restoration — Taymouth; and these were amongst the birds 

 which had reached to unusually great distances at these dates. 

 I cannot be far wrong in supposing that female Capercaillies first 

 reached these unusually distant localities, it may have been 

 assisted by gales of wind (as in the case of the first recorded 

 Fifeshire bird (p. 76), and that male Capercaillies failed to 

 follow them. Landing in a country inhabited by black game, 

 hybridism resulted. 



Again, at TuUiallan, in 1856 (two years later), out of a 

 setting of Capercaillies' eggs three birds were reared, but these 

 turned out to be all females, which " bred freely with black 

 game, and hybrids were common in 1857. In 1864 more eggs 

 were hatched out, some of which were males, and since then 

 Capercaillies have increased rapidly, and now — 1877 — there 

 will be from 200 to 300 birds on the estate. Hybrids are still 

 to be met with, but not so numerously as before the Caper- 

 caillies became plentiful." For information, so much to the 

 point, I am indebted to Mr. Millar, head gamekeeper at TuUi- 

 allan, who has been there since their earliest appearance. The 

 eggs hatched out in 1864 were obtained from Freelands, near 

 Perth, by Lord Balfour of Burleigh. 



Sabanaeff, in his account of the ' Avi Fauna of the Ural' 

 says, under ' Tetrao urogalloides {T. Medius) ': — " Taking this 

 as a hybrid, it is easily explained, as a great number of the 

 male T. urogallus are killed in spring, and therefore there 

 exists a great predominance of females " (see translation of his 

 paper in ' Proc. Nat. Hist. Sod Glasgow, 1877, p. 304). I am 

 not sure, however, that this is entirely the reason of a pre- 

 dominance of females. Farther north, at Ust-Zilma, on the 

 Petchora, Seebohm and I found that the natives only shot the 

 hen Capercaillies, as the males were not considered fit for 

 food. 



