ANIMALS INTRODUCED FOR SAKE OF SPORT 273 



progress along the fertile flats of Strathmore gave access to 

 Clackmannan and the Forth Valley. Some fifteen years 

 served to cover the valley system of the Forth, the earliest 

 records of breeding being those at Blair Drummond in 1 860 

 and at Dunmore at the mouth of the river in 1863. Up the 

 Teith Valley, the Caper settled near Callander in 1872. From 

 the southern end of Strathmore the movements southwards 

 were continued by two channels, one leading by the eastern 

 shoulders of the Campsie Fells to the Lothians and the 

 south-eastern counties, the other by the western shoulders 

 to Dumbarton, Renfrew and the south-western counties. 



Westwards from the main centre at Taymouth, the 

 wanderers passed up Glen Lyon, and along the sides of 

 Loch Tay, whence, following the valley of the Dochart (1865), 

 they debouched upon Glen Falloch. From this they reached 

 the shores of Loch Lomond in 1874, and crossed to Argyll- 

 shire where they had penetrated almost to the line of the 

 Crinan Canal in 1910, and whence they crossed to the 

 island of Bute about 1913. 



The records of the natural dispersal of the Capercaillie 

 in the Lowlands are less easy to interpret, owing to the 

 independent introduction of the bird at Glenapp in Ayrshire, 

 where it survived for several years after 1841, and at 

 Tulliallan near Kincardine-on-Forth, where a strong estab- 

 lishment was made in 1864. 



Neither of these supplementary introductions, however, 

 has so much contributed to the spread of the Capercaillie as 

 the persistent and successful efforts begun in Strathnairn in 

 1894, when a commencement was made by turning down 3 1 

 birds brought from Norway and Austria, to which stock fresh 

 birds were added each succeeding year till 1900. I have no 

 doubt that the Strathnairn centre is responsible for the 

 appearance and increase of the Capercaillie to the west and 

 north, at Inverness (1912), Beauly (1912) and in Ross-shire 

 (1912), as well as in Nairn and Moray (1907) to the east. 



There are many features of interest in the recolonization 

 of Scotland by the Capercaillie, but sufficient has been said 

 to show the widespread significance of the introduction of 

 this fine bird, which through man's intervention has spread 

 from the western slopes of Argyllshire to the plains of eastern 

 Fife, and from southern Wigtownshire to the hillsides of 



R. 18 



