426 Mr. A. G. More on the Distribution of Birds 



bird, which was " killed in the woods of Mr. Chisolme, to the 

 north [? west] of Inverness." 



The Rev. George Gordon informs me that the Capercally for- 

 merly inhabited the county of Elgin ; and Mr. R. J. Sheai'er 

 marks it as extinct in Caithness. This is the only independent 

 testimony which I have obtained respecting the former distribu- 

 tion of this fine bird. A search in some of the old Scottish 

 county-histories may bring to light some further details concern- 

 ing the Capercally. Macgillivray, in the first volume of his 

 ' British Birds ' (p. 143)^ quotes an interesting passage from the 

 ' Historia Scotorum.' 



At present the bird seems to have become thoroughly re- 

 established in several parts of Perthshire, where it has increased 

 rapidly within the last ten years, and is believed to have spread 

 to the adjoining county of Clackmannan, as I learn from Dr. P. 

 Brotherson. 



Tetrad tetrix {Linn.). Black Grouse. 

 Provinces I.-VI. VII. ? VIII.-XVII. 

 Subprovinces i, 2-6, (7), (9), (11), (12), 14?, 15, 16, 18?, 



20-23, 24, 25-35. 

 Lat. 50°-59°. " Scottish " type. Not in Ireland. 



Though found in the extreme south of England, the Black 

 Grouse more properly belongs to the low birch-woods and heaths 

 of the less elevated districts of Scotland. It breeds " occasion- 

 ally " in Cornwall [Mr. E. H.Rodd). In Devon, Somerset, 

 Dorset, Hants, Sussex, Surrey, Berks, Worcester {Yarrell), 

 Shropshire, Stafford, Radnor {Mr. Rocke), North Wales "in- 

 troduced and decreasing on the Beswyn mountains near Corwen" 

 {Eyton), Cheshire, Lancashire, and both divisions of Yorkshire, 

 and in all districts to the north of these, extending to Islay, 

 Mull, Skye, &c., but not reaching the Outer Hebrides, nor is 

 it found in Orkney or Shetland. 



The Black Grouse has been successfully introduced in the 

 neighbourhood of Lynn in Norfolk. Yarrell says that the pro- 

 genitors of the birds at present inhabiting the heaths of Surrey 

 and Berks were brought from Holland, though the species had 

 previously been known as indigenous to the former county. A 



