THE CAPERCAILLIE. 31 



THE CAPEECAILLIE, OR WOOD GROUSE. 



Cock of the Wood. 

 t 

 Tetrao urogallus, Linn. 



Has unfortunately long since been extinct. 



That so noble a bird — the chief of the European grouse — and abori- 

 ginal inhabitant of our native forests should have become so, is much 

 to be regretted ; but by the felling of the woods its doom was sealed. 

 Giraldus, in his ' Topographia Hibernise ' states, that this species (called 

 by him Pavo sylvestris) was more common in Ireland than the red 

 grouse, about the twelfth century. When the island was covered with 

 native woods one can imagine this to have been the case, but even if 

 less abundant, the nature of its haunts would cause it to be more 

 frequently met with than the red grouse, and consequently lead to the 

 belief that it was more common. Willoughby (1678) observes, "This 

 bird is found on high mountains beyond seas, and as we are told in 

 Ireland (where they call it Cock of the Wood), but nowhere in England." 

 He thus concludes his description : " The flesh of this bird is of a 

 delicate taste and wholesom nourishment, so that being so stately a bird, 

 and withal so rare, it seems to be born only for princes' and great men's 

 tables" ! O'Elaherty, in his "West or. H-Iar Connaught," written in 

 1684, remarked: — "I omit other ordinary fowl and birds, as bernacles, 

 wild geese, swans, cocks of the wood, woodcocks, choughs [jackdaws?], 

 rooks, Cornish choughs with red legs and bills, &c." p. 13. The Irish 

 statutes 11 Anne, ch. 7, recite, " that the species of cocks of the wood 

 (a fowl peculiar to this kingdom) is in danger of being lost," and pro- 

 hibit the shooting of them " for seven years." Smith, in his ' History 

 of Cork' (1749), observes, that "it is now found rarely in Ireland, 

 since our woods have been destroyed." Rutty, in his 'Natural History 

 of Dubhn' (1772), mentions that "one was seen in the county of 

 Leitrim about the year 1710, but they have entirely disappeared of late, 

 by reason of the destruction of our woods." Vol. i. p. 302. — Pennant, 

 in his 'British Zoology' (1776), states that "about the year 1760 

 a few were to be found about Thomastown, county of Tipperary." 

 The 27th Geo. III. " prohibits killing moor game, heath game, 

 grouse, pheasant, partridge, quail, land rail, and wild turkey, between 



