CAPERCAILLIE 227 



greit kind " 2/-, " Claikquink and rute " -/I8d., 

 " pleuver and small meere foule " -/4d. 9 " blak cok and 

 the gray hen " -/6d, " the dosane of poutis " -/12d., 

 " quhaip " -/6d., " the cuning " 2/- until the next feast 

 of Fasternis Even and afterwards -/I2d., laproun 

 -/2d., woodcok -/4d., larks and other small birds -J4d. 

 the doz., " Snype and qualzie " -/2d., " tame geese " 

 -flGd., " capone " -/12d., " hen and pultrie " -/gflL 

 " chikin " -/4d., " gryse " -/I8d. 



In the later edition (1681) the same spelling is ob- 

 served. 



Now what can this " gryse " be ? Sold at 18 pence 

 when black cock and grey hen were at 6 pence and 

 " pouts " (I suppose heath-poultes or moor-poultes, 

 i.e. Red Grouse, at 12 pence the dozen ! Was it Caper- 

 cally ? 



Pinkerton in his " Hist. Scotl. " (II. p. 397) prints a 

 letter from one John Elder of Caithness to Henry VIII. 

 in which the former says : " Our delight and pleasure 

 is not only in hunting of red-deer, wolves, foxes and 

 graies, whereof we abound and have great plenty." 

 " Graies " here are, of course, badgers, as also in the Act 

 of Jas. II. (of Scotland), 1455, prescribing the dress of 

 the Lords of Parliament, who were to have, " ane mantill 

 of reid, rychtswa oppinnit befoir, and lynit with silk, 

 or furrit with cristy gray grece or purray." The later 

 edition spells the word " griece." 



Badgers, though eatable, could never have come into 

 the market sufficiently often to make it desirable for 

 their price to be fixed, and I only quote these passages 

 to be assured by you that the " grice " of Pittscottie 

 cannot refer to them. 



But the " gryse " of Mary's Act puzzles me not a 

 little just as much as some of the other birds (?) named 

 in the same document.* 



I can no more decide whether Dr. McLauchlan or 

 McArthur is the better Gaelic scholar than I can take 





Letter to J. A. Harvie- Brown, February 16, 1878. 



