VOL. VII.] PLUMAGE OF CAPERCAILLIE. 3 



described in British Game-Birds and Wildfowl, page 12, 

 to which work I contributed the articles on Natural 

 History.* 



Note on Capercaillies in the Pennant Collection. 



While writing on the Capercaillie it may interest the 

 readers of British Birds to learn that among the birds of 

 the "Pennant Collection," recently presented by the 

 Earl of Denbigh to the Natural History Museum, there 

 was a case containing a fine pair of Capercaillies. These 

 are almost certainly the originals of the figures given in 

 Pennant's British Zoology, p. 84, pis. M and M* (1766). 

 He says, in a footnote to his description, that he is obHged 

 to Gesner and WiUughby for the measurements and 

 weights of these birds, having seen only dried specimens 

 of them. In A Tour in Scotland, 1769, Appendix, 

 pp. 278-9, pis. XV. and xvi., fig. ii. (1771), the same birds 

 are again figured, the female in this instance having the 

 neck stretched out as in the mounted specimen in 

 Pennant's Collection. In British Zoology, pi. M*, the 

 head has been turned round over the bird's back, 

 evidently with a view to getting it into the plate. 



In the octavo edition of British Zoology, p. 349 (1812), 

 Pennant writes : "In our country I have seen one 

 specimen, a male, killed in the woods of Mr. Chisolme, 

 to the north of Inverness. About the year 1760, a few 

 were to be seen about Thomas-town, in the county of 

 Tipperary, but I suspect that the breed is now extinct 

 in every part of Ireland." 



It is quite possible that the birds in the Pennant 

 Collection are of Scottish origin : if so they are the only 

 examples of the old British race of CapercailHe known 

 to exist at the present time. Unfortunately there seems 

 to be no means of proving this interesting point, as the 

 case contained no data whatsoever. The Pennant 

 Capercailfies do not seem to differ in any way from 

 Scandinavian specimens. 



* British Game-Birds and Wildfowl. The London and Counties Press 

 Association, Ltd., 1912. 



