io Lost British Birds. 



specimens of a lost species. So long as specimens exist the 

 dead bird is not regarded as wholly and for ever lost ; but 

 rather as having a kind of post-mortem existence, highly 

 advantageous to science a quiet immortality aloof from the 

 perturbations of nature. When the Capercaillie, after a 

 long and gradual decline, had finally gone out, it was found 

 that not one preserved example existed ; consequently, we 

 do not know just what the bird was like. Probably it 

 differed somewhat from the Capercaillie of Northern Europe ; 

 and we may be certain of this that the British race had 

 existed apart from the Continental races from exceedingly re- 

 mote times, that its isolation must have been brought about 

 by geologic changes, which severed this country from the 

 mainland. Consequently, the Capercaillie, which now 

 happily ranks as a member of the British avi-fauna, is not 

 an indigenous bird, but introduced, and, like the red-legged 

 partridge and the pheasant, an exotic. 



With the second part of its history namely, the restora- 

 tion of the species, I have no business to deal in this paper ; 

 but no reader will grudge me the pleasure of saying some- 

 thing on the subject, since this forms the one bright and 

 pleasant chapter in a story which is otherwise altogether dark 

 and disastrous. And here I wish to express my gratitude 

 to Mr. Harvie-Brown for his volume on the Capercaillie in 

 Scotland, which contains a full account of the reintroduction 

 of that fine bird, and its subsequent progress down to the 

 present time. 



In 1827, and again in 1829, some attempts to introduce 

 the Capercaillie were made, but were not successful. The 

 late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton then took the matter up. 

 He had been staying at Taymouth Castle on the Tay, and 

 " influenced by a desire to introduce these noble birds into 

 Scotland, coupled with that of making Lord Breadalbane 

 some return for his recent kindness," he sent out to Sweden 

 and procured some birds one lot in 1837, a second in 

 1838, in all forty-eight individuals. From this centre 

 (Taymouth) the birds have spread, and formed numberless 

 fresh colonies during the last half century. 



