272 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



splitting into two bodies as the two valleys presented 

 themselves, passed onwards up the Isla and down the 

 Tay. A glance at the map will show how the former 

 body, keeping to the main drift of the valley, ^gradually 

 colonized the tributary valleys, settling in the upper parts of 

 Strathardle in 1860 and of Glenshee in 1865. The Glen 

 Isla settlements not only supplied the tributary valleys, but 

 overflowed into Forfar by the low land at the base of the 

 Grampian foothills, and reached Glamis Castle near Forfar 

 in 1863, and the neighbourhood of Brechin in 1870. This 

 northward migration was reinforced by an introduction at 

 Cortachy in 1862. Thence progress along the easy flats of 

 the South and North Esk was peculiarly slow, for the Caper- 

 caillie made no general appearance in North Kincardineshire 

 till 1878, when it had spread up the wooded valley of the 

 Dee as far as Banchory and Inchmarlo. Widely spread 

 colonies were in course of time established in Aberdeen- 

 shire and Banffshire. Col. Sir Arthur Grant, Bart., informs 

 me that on the estate of Monymusk on the Don near Alford, 

 Caper were first seen in 1889, when a hen in a very 

 exhausted condition was picked up during a snow storm. 

 Here the birds were first shot in December 1891, when six 

 were killed. Since that time, the increase in this district 

 has been extraordinarily rapid (see p. 274). About 1896 I 

 learned that birds had been seen in the woods at the " back 

 o' Bennachie." In Glass parish on the Deveron they 

 appeared in 1897, an d in the woods at Methlick a pair had 

 a brood in 1911. This great extension of range, of over one 

 hundred miles as the crow flies, was the direct outcome of 

 the break-away that followed the Isla valley, while the main 

 movement of Capercaillies kept close to the line of the Tay. 

 To return to this main movement: From the junction 

 of the Isla (1847) the Caper reached the mouth of the Tay 

 about 1852, having sent a branch up Glen Almond in 

 passing. This meeting-place of the midland vales near 

 Perth became an important centre of distribution, whence 

 the midlands and southern counties were invaded. The 

 Earn valley was conquered in progressive stages, Loch 

 Earn being finally reached in 1876. The Ochil Hills were 

 turned on their north-eastern flank, easy entrance being 

 thereby gained to the plains of Fife and Kinross, while 



