PLATE I 

 CAPERCAILLIE. Tetra o urogallns 



May 29///, 1895. The nest in the annexed Plate was photographed in a small 

 plantation at the edge of a large wood in the south-east of Perthshire. It 

 was placed at the bottom of a small spruce fir among a tangle of brackens, 

 brambles, and rank grass, and contained six eggs. 



The female was sitting on the nest as we came up, but she flew away 

 before we got within photographing range. The nest was a mere depression 

 in the ground, scantily lined with a little dry grass, and a few of the hen 

 Capercail lie's loose feathers. The birds were very plentiful in this locality, 

 and we came across three nests during our walk through the woods, being 

 guided to them by the keeper. All the nests were in fairly open parts of 

 the wood, generally among the young spruce-trees which were overgrown 

 by rank heather, brambles, and bracken. We did not see any of the cocks, 

 as the keeper informed us that they usually kept to the larger trees in the 

 older part of the wood. He also told us that he had not seen nearly so many 

 nests this season as he had done on previous occasions, but this was chiefly 

 owing to the impenetrable tangles of blown-down trees, among which the birds 

 probably were nesting in quite unapproachable situations. 



The second nest we came across was in a very similar situation, but the 

 bird would not wait to be taken, and hurriedly took flight as we approached. 

 The number of eggs in this second nest was seven. Probably both these birds 

 were comparatively young ones, as in another wood not many miles distant 

 the usual number of eggs I have seen in a nest is nine or ten. 



VOL. ii. D 13 



