EFFECTS UPON ANIMAL LIFE 355 



do not remember any instance where its bones have been 

 found in a Scottish prehistoric settlement, although they 

 have been found in the ancient kitchen-middens of Denmark. 

 The furthest south record in Scotland of the native stock of 

 Capercaillies appears to be the somewhat indeterminate 

 remark of the Rev J. Hendrick in his View ofArran (1807) 

 that they "formerly abounded" in that Island. This occur- 

 rence may represent the last survivors of a Lowland stock, 

 for it certainly lies beyond the bounds of the general distri- 

 bution of the bird in Scotland as history has recorded it. 



It is true that Hector Boece's statement in 1526 may be 

 taken to indicate a general distribution : 



Mony uthir fowlis ar in Scotland, quhilkis ar sene in na uthir partis of the 

 warld; as capercailye, ane foul mair [greater] than ane ravin, quhilk leiffis 

 allanerlie of barkis of treis [Bellenden's Translation]. 



But, half a century later, Bishop Jhone Leslie, who was 

 perhaps more familiar with the country, shows clearly that 

 the range of the Caper was limited: 



"In Rosse and Loquhaber," he writes in 1578, as translated by Father 

 Dalrymple, "and vthiris places amang hilis <Sc knowis, ar nocht in missing 

 fir trie sufficient, quhair oft sittis a certane foul and verie rare called the 

 Capercalye, to name, with the vulgar peple, the horse of the forrest, les 

 indeid than the corbie, quhilke pleises- thair mouth, quha eitis her, with a 

 gentle taste, maist acceptable." 



How Leslie could have described the bird as being less than 

 a corbie, or having a "gentle taste," I do not understand; 

 but probably tastes, like manners, change, for theCock-of-the- 

 Woods found a place as frequently as its rarity would allow 

 on the tables of the nobility. At the royal hunt on the Braes 

 of Athole in 1529, the Duke "maid great and gorgeous 

 provisioun for him [King James V] in all things pertaining 

 to ane prince " and in the long list of fowls served was 

 the Capercaillie. In the sixteenth century, therefore, history 

 traces its presence from the wilds of Perthshire northwards 

 through Inverness to Ross. 



The records of the succeeding century are more complete 

 and more interesting. The Capercaillie still inhabited 

 Perthshire: in 1617, King James VI hinted to the Earl of 

 Tullibardine that on account of his " dutiful affection to the 

 good of our service and your countrie's credite," he should 

 cause 



232 



