2;o DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



of Fife at Mar Lodge in Aberdeenshire in 1827 and 1829, 

 when Capercaillies were brought from a Swedish forest. 

 But the numbers which arrived were too few: in 1827 only 

 a male reached the end of his journey alive, and, in 1829, 

 when a single pair was imported, notwithstanding that they 

 reared apparently, healthy broods, parents and progeny soon 

 died out. 



Astonishing success, however, met the efforts made to 

 establish the Capercaillie in the vicinity of Lord Breadal- 

 bane's castle of Taymouth. Through the instrumentality of 

 Sir Fowell Buxton, a Norfolk squire, at least 13 cocks and 

 19 hens (some accounts say 48 birds), arrived at Taymouth 

 in 1837 and 1838 and were set free in the woods. They at 

 once settled down in their new surroundings, formed nests 

 and hatched and reared healthy broods, with such success 

 that twenty-five years later the Marquis of Breadalbane 

 estimated the number on his estate at 1000 birds, although 

 his head-keeper believed that 2000 was nearer the mark. 



From Taymouth adult birds were transported to various 

 localities, as to Arran in 1843, where, reinforced by fresh 

 importations from Sweden in 1846, they became established. 

 Other deliberate endeavours to found new colonies, as at 

 Dunkeld and in the counties of Ayr and Argyll, were un- 

 successful, although some, as the introduction of eggs at 

 Tulliallan in 1864 an d ten years later of birds at Lathirsk 

 in Fife, met with better fortune. From the naturalist's point 

 of view, however, the most interesting result of the Tay- 

 mouth introduction has been the extraordinary way in which 

 natural processes of increase and migration have led the 

 birds from this limited station to colonize the greater part 

 of Scotland. For the details of this gradual conquest ot new 

 areas, the reader must turn to Dr J. A. Harvie-Brown's 

 Capercaillie in Scotland where the movements up to 

 1879 are carefully recorded. Here I can give only the 

 main features up to the present day of the distribution from 

 the centre at Taymouth Castle in central Perthshire. 



It is natural to suppose that since the Capercaillie 

 depends on pine woods both for shelter and food, its dis- 

 persal would be regulated by the position and suitability of 

 such woods, together with its own rate of increase and the 

 consequent necessity for the discovery of new feeding and 



