276 BEITISH BIRDS 



brown speckled with black ; breast lustrous green ; belly black with 

 white spots ; rump and flanks marked with undulating lines of black 

 and ash colour ; tail black with white spots ; beak horn-white. 

 Length, two feet ten inches. Female : a third smaller, barred and 

 spotted with tawny red, black, and white ; throat tawny red ; breast 

 deep red ; tail dark red with black bars, white at the tip. 



North Britain, with its islands, although poor in species com- 

 paratively, has one glory which her larger, richer neighbour is with- 

 out : her wilder districts still afford breeding- places to several of the 

 larger species which have long ceased to exist in England. Of 

 these are the osprey, sea-eagle, golden eagle, ptarmigan, and caper- 

 caillie, the last the finest game-bird of Europe, with the sole excep- 

 tion of the great bustard. The story of the capercaillie in Great 

 Britain is singularly interesting. It became extinct about the 

 middle of the last century, and was recovered some eighty or ninety 

 years later, when it was reintroduced from Sweden in 1837-8, and 

 has since spread over a large portion of Scotland, and continues to 

 extend its range. 



The difference in size between the cock and hen capercaillie is 

 greater than in any other game-bird. In Scotland, the weight of 

 the male is from ten to eleven pounds, that of the female about 

 four pounds and a hah*. In northern Europe the cock weighs as 

 much as seventeen pounds. It is curious to find that in a large 

 number of gallinaceous birds, the pheasants and grouse more especi- 

 ally, the females have a near resemblance in size, form, and colour- 

 ing. The divergence is mostly in the males, and is greatest in the 

 polygamous species. Thus, it would be difficult to find two birds hi 

 the same order more utterly unlike in appearance than the cock 

 pheasant and capercaillie ; yet the females of the two species preserve 

 a strong family likeness. 



The capercaillie feeds on the tender shoots of the Scotch fir, and 

 on buds and shoots of other trees and plants, and berries of various 

 kinds. He is an early breeder, and in spring the cock is heard 

 uttering his powerful double cry, several times repeated in suc- 

 cession, from a lofty perch in a pine-tree. While calling he puffs 

 out his plumage and expands his tail like an angry turkey-cock. 

 The call, which is uttered early in the morning, is a summons to 

 the hens, who are not slow to obey it, and is also a challenge to 

 other males. The same spot is used morning after morning for 

 meetings, displays, and combats, until each male has secured hia 



