48 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



Athole and Lord Breadalbane having, as we have seen (antea, 

 p. 33), planted considerable areas of their estates, in the latter 

 part of the last century and in the beginning of the present 

 one, with larch, Scots fir, and spruce, thus forming for the 

 restored birds, the perfection of cover and food. 1 



Of late much of this wood has been cut down, and sheep- 

 grazing has taken the place of forest growth. Consequently 

 the birds find their domain restricted, and are more subject 

 to disturbance. Mr. Anderson says : " Within the last six or 

 seven years they have been decidedly on the decrease, al- 

 though still very abundant." All my correspondents agree in 

 this, and one goes so far as to say that he " believes there are 

 not half the birds upon the Athole estates that there were 

 twenty years ago." I have statistics showing a similar de- 

 crease in other localities. At present the birds are not much 

 shot nor disturbed on the Breadalbane and Athole estates. 



Very shortly after their introduction at Taymouth they 

 appeared at Craig-y-barns, near Dunkeld viz. in 1840 and 

 a female was shot in 1843. They were then preserved up to 

 1848, but had become firmly established there long prior to 

 that date. 



In 1842 Prince Albert shot one at Taymouth as part of 

 the game obtained when there with Her Majesty. 2 Mr. 

 Charles Buxton, in his ' Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 

 Bart! (p. 333, footnote), claims to have shot, along with his 

 brother, " the first of these birds that had been killed in Scot- 

 land for a hundred years." As has been related by Blaine, 

 however, two were said to have been shot in the north of 



1 To Mr. Roderick Anderson of Dunkeld, amongst many others, I am in- 

 debted for a very succinct and admirable account of the reintroduction of the 

 species ; to Mr. Dayton of Loch Earn Head Hotel also, for other notes and 

 hints connected with the subject, and others having had personal acquaintance 

 with Mr. James Guthrie and Mr. Banvill, and who well remember the first 

 appearance of the birds at Taymouth. 



2 Vide ' Her Majesty's Journal. ' 



