228 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



thought prudent to thin the Capercaillies where they have become 

 numerous. Mr Geike, factor to the Earl of Airlie, lately informed 

 me that he has seen as many as fifteen brace killed in a day by 

 one shooting party. These birds are also abundant on the estate 

 of the Earl of Breadalbane, where of late years they have increased 

 to a great extent. Stray birds are often seen in the counties 

 adjacent to the two just mentioned. Numbers are sent to the 

 Glasgow poulterers, but from the rankness of their flesh they are 

 not much esteemed for the table a quality which in these 

 degenerate poaching days must materially lessen the chances of 

 their destruction. 



Mr Elwes, whose interesting notes are now before me, remarks 

 that as they are not included in the game laws, and can be shot at 

 any time of year, it is a favourite plan in some places to reserve 

 them until January and February, when, with a few roe-deer and 

 woodcocks, they help to make up a very good day's sport. As 

 they keep mostly in high Scotch firwoods, and are very wary, it is 

 necessary to drive them with beaters, and though from their great 

 size very easy to hit, a hard blow and large shot are necessary to 

 bring them down. They are said to drive the black game very 

 much away from the woods they frequent, and in some places are 

 not much liked on this account. 



On consulting some of the older records respecting the occurrence 

 of this " chieftain of the grouse tribe," I find that as far back as 

 the early part of the seventeenth century its head-quarters had 

 been almost where they now are, and that it had spread from this 

 centre northwards.* In Inverness-shire it had lingered until 1745. 



* As an exception to this rule it may be mentioned that the Rev. J. Head- 

 rick, in his " View of Arran," published in 1807, remarks that the Capercaillie 

 " formerly abounded" in that island, but seemed then to be extirpated. I have 

 the satisfaction, however, of stating that the bird has been again introduced 

 into the island, and is now (1870) observed in considerable numbers. From 

 this district eggs have been obtained by parties at a distance, and experiments 

 tried in Dumfriesshire and Wigtown with a view to the re-establishment of the 

 bird in the firwoods of these counties These experiments have been so far suc- 

 cessful that several broods have been dispersed throughout the south of Scotland, 

 but from the want of sufficient cover it is extremely doubtful if the species can 

 increase in that direction. Indeed, judging from newspaper records, it would 

 appear that in several instances the birds have wandered from their native 

 woods, and been destroyed by grouse shooters. In December, 1868, a fine 

 male, in beautiful plumage, was shot in Lanarkshire by Henry Lees, Esq., on 

 his moors at Auchengray, near Airdrie ; and in the last week of November, 1869, 



