Family PHASIANID^. Genus Tetrao. 



Subfamily Tetraoninm. 



OAPERCAILLIE. 



TETRAO UROGALLUS— Z/«««Kj. 



Geographical Distribution. — British: Bones of this species 

 testify to its former residence in the north of England, such 

 having been found in the caves of Teesdale and amongst the 

 Roman remains at Settle, in West Yorkshire. During the latter 

 half of the last century it was exterminated from Scotland and 

 Ireland, Pennant stating that a few were to be found about 

 Thomastown, in Tipperary, about the year 1760, and mentions an 

 example obtained north of Inverness ; so that it would seem that 

 the bird became extinct in Scotland and Ireland simultaneously. 

 Its successful reintroduction into Scotland from Sweden com- 

 menced in 1837-38, by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, although an 

 attempt had been made some ten years previously at Mar Lodge. 

 From Taymouth, in Perthshire, the centre of its restoration, it has 

 spread during the past fifty years over the greater part of the 

 county Forfarshire, as well as southwards to Stirlingshire. The 

 extension of its range appears now only to be a matter of time. 

 Foreign: Western Palaearctic region. Inhabits the pine forests 

 of Europe and Asia; in Scandinavia as far north as lat. 70°; in 

 Russia and Siberia as far north as lat. 67". Its eastern limit 

 appears to be the valley of the Yenesay up to Lake Baikal. 

 Returning westwards it is found in South Siberia, in the Altai 

 Mountains, and in North-eastern Turkestan up to an elevation 

 of 10,000 feet. It appears not to inhabit the Caucasus and 

 Southern Russia, but is a dweller in the pine forests of the 

 Carpathians, the Italian slopes of the Alps, the Spanish slopes of 

 the Pyrenees, and throughout the Cantabrian ranges. It is still 



