ANIMALS IXTRODLXED FOR SAKE OF SPORT 2^9 



shoots of which it lived in the winter time, brought about the 

 extermination of the "old man of the woods," the -'caber- 

 coille" as he is affectionately named in Gaelic. Fuller 

 reference to this unfortunate extinction will be made in 

 discussing the effects of the destruction of the forests 

 (p. 354); it is sufficient here to say that after a long period 

 of dwindling numbers the last of the native Capercafllies 

 seem to have occurred in Scotland about the seventies of the 



F%. 50. Capereaillies (Cock znd Hen)- reinstated rn Scotland ifter eiireriLinarioc. 



tij nor. size- 

 eighteenth century, one havieg been seen about r 762 in, die 

 woods of Strathglass. while Pennant says tfee rare bird was 

 still to be met with in 1769 in Glenmoriston to the west of 

 Inverness. 



The Capercafllie, however, continued to survive in the 

 great forests of continental Europe and Asia, from Norway 

 and Sweden in the west to Kamschatka in the east, and 

 from Siberia in the north to the pine-forests of Germany, 

 Austria and the Balkans. A first and fruitless attempt to 

 re-establish these birds in Scotland was made bv the Earl 



