40 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family TETRAONIDiE. Genus Teteao. 



CAPERCAILLIE. 



TBTRAO UEOGALLUS.— LmntsMs. 



Plate VII. 



Tetrao urogallus, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 273 (1766) ; Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 138 (1837) ; 

 Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 223, pi. 490 (1873) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 45 (1883) ; 

 Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 440 (1884) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 359 

 (1893) ; Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 60 (1893) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. 

 pt. xxviii. (1894); Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 274, pi. 59 (1896); Sharpe, 

 Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iv. p. 276 (1897). 



Geographical distribution. — British: Bones of the Capercaillie testify 

 to its former residence in the north of England, such having been found in the 

 caves of Teesdale and amongst the Eoman 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 introduction into Scotland from Sweden 

 commenced in 1837-38 by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, although an attempt had 

 been made some ten years previously at Mar Lodge. From Taymouth, in Perth- 

 shire, the centre of its restoration, it has spread during the past fifty years over 

 the greater part of this county and Forfarshire, as well as into Stirlingshire. The 

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

 Palsearctic region. It inhabits the pine forests of Europe and Asia; in Scandinavia 

 as far north as lat. 70°; in Eussia and Siberia as far north as lat. 67°. Its eastern 

 limit appears to be the valley of the Yenisei up to Lake Baikal. Eeturning west- 

 wards 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 tiot to inhabit the 

 Caucasus and Southern Eussia, but is a dweller in the pine forests of the 

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

 and throughout the Cantabrian ranges. It is still found, but in apparently 

 decreasing numbers, in Poland and in Northern and Central Germany. 



Allied forms. — A pale subspecies of the Capercaillie has been described 

 from the Urals under the name of Tetrao uralensis by Professor Nazarov. Tetrao 

 parvirostris, an inhabitant of Bast Siberia, ranging from the valley of the Yenisei, 

 through Mantchooria, southward into Northern China. Differs from the Caper- 



