80 CAPERCAILZIE. 



ciently advanced; but we have been unable to 

 trace whether this was done, and what was their 

 fate.* At a later period, 1838-39, Lord Breadal- 

 bane received from Mr. Loyd no fewer than forty- 

 four Capercailzies, some of which were turned out, 

 while others were retained in confinement ; both 

 have succeeded ; and Mr. Yarrell states, that in 

 1839, seventy-nine young- birds were known to be 

 hatched. The Duchess of Athole had some birds 

 sent to her at Blair, and some have been hatched 

 in the aviary at Knowlsiey. Thomas Fowell Bux- 

 ton, Esq., has succeeded in rearing them in con- 

 finement in Norfolk ; and it is evident, that with 

 ordinary attention, there is little difficulty in their 

 propagation in confinement, whence, in a few 

 years, a stock could be reared in some suitable 

 locality, where there was a strict protection. In 

 various parts of Northern Europe also, we have 

 the authority of Mr. Loyd, Nilsson, and others, 

 for their being- not unfrequently domesticated. 



In its habits in a wild state, all our accounts 

 agree, in stating their close alliance to those of the 

 black cock. They frequent forests, and those wild 

 tracts of country, which, we imagine, are partially 

 interspersed with native brush-wood, intermingled 

 with patches of old timber, where they feed on the 

 tender shoots, the buds, and berries which those 

 regions furnish. In breeding time the male at- 



* See an interesting and long account of this introduction 

 in Jameson's Journal for July, 1832, by James Wilson, 

 copied in the Nat. Lib. Ornith. vol. iv. 



