many other districts in Scotland, I am given to under- 
stand that it is now exceedingly scarce in the Jura, 
whilst in the north of Spain I do not think that it ever 
was really abundant. With regard to the existence of 
this species as an indigenous bird in Great Britain and 
Ireland, I must refer my readers to the 4th edition of 
*‘Yarrell.’ I gather from that work that the Capercaillie 
was virtually extinct in our Islands at the end of the 
last century, and that it was not till 1837 that it was 
successfully re-established in Scotland by importations 
from Sweden. In 1863 the head gamekeeper at 
Taymouth estimated the number of these birds on the 
Breadalbane estate under his supervision at 2000. 
To enumerate the localities in Scotland in which our 
bird now exists and thrives would be tiresome, and 
quite out of place in this work. The whole subject 
has been most ably treated of by Mr. Harvie-Brown in 
his work ‘On the Capercaillie in Scotland’ (1879) ; 
and it is more than probable that many of my readers 
know a great deal more of this bird in Scotland and 
abroad than I can tell them without plunder from 
better informed writers than myself. Although fir- 
woods are undoubtedly the favourite and usual haunts 
of this species, we found it in Northern Spain in a 
region where coniferous trees are, if they exist at all, 
exceedingly scarce, and where the food of the “ Faisan,” 
as the present species is there called, consists of various 
berries, ants, beech-mast, acorns, and the buds and 
young shoots of birch, alder, and hazel. In Scotland 
during the winter months this species seems to prefer 
the leaves or ‘needles ”’ of the Scotch fir to any other 
