2 GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS. 



frequently. It is also found in parts of Erance, though 

 perhaps rather sparingly. 



Throughout all the wooded parts of Scandinavia, from 

 Altengaard in Norway, 70° N. lat., where the northernmost 

 pine forests in Europe exist, to the northern portion of 

 Scania, in short, wherever the pine-tree flourishes, it is 

 pretty coramon. As high up, indeed, as JVIuonioniska, in 

 Swedish, or rather Russian, Lapland, 68° lat., I myself 

 once shot a brace of old birds ; but beyond that place it is 

 said to become scarcer and scarcer. 



The male and female vary very greatly in plumage, 

 the predominant colour of the former being black or dark- 

 brown, whereas that of the female is reddish-brown with 

 black bars. 



In size also the sexes greatly differ, the female being 

 fully one-third less than the male, which, when full- 

 grown, measures some three feet in length, and four 

 from tip to tip of Aving. Its size, however, much 

 depends on the latitude it inhabits. In Lapland, at 

 least in the northern parts, it seldom exceeds eight to 

 nine pounds in weight, whilst in the more southern portion 

 of Sweden it has not unfrequently been met with weighing 

 as much as fourteen or sixteen pounds, or even more. 



The Capercali is supposed to attain a considerable age, 

 which may be partly inferred from its not being fully 

 grown until its third or fourth year. The old male birds 

 may readily be distinguished from the younger, not only 

 by their superior size, but also by their greater length of 

 tail, their more eagle-like beak, and the moi'e beautiful 

 lustre of the plumage on the breast. 



Accidental varieties of both sexes are not of unfrequent 

 occurrence. Nilsson makes mention of as many as four 

 such varieties, viz. : — 



1st. A male killed in Dalecarlia and preserved in the 

 museum of the Acadcmv of Sciences in Stockholm. — The 



