BIRDS. 



283 



The following may be held as continuous with the original essay, 

 and includes an epitome of the Appendix to the same, which was 

 issued later.^ I can only afford space here to give a short indication 

 of the contents of the former essay relating to Tay and neighbour- 

 ing districts, and to refer my readers to the original for further 

 particulars. 



"Perthshire" occupies pp. 57 to 70, where the most minute 

 details of advance are given. In the same way, "Forfarshire" 

 occupies pp. 72 to 75. But Kincardineshire remained at that time 

 almost a blank, and the nearest location shown on the map repre- 

 sented only, so to speak, a " visiting committee " at Fasque House. 

 In fact with the exceptions of a few visits of such early pioneers, 

 such as a hybrid at Fetteresso on 26th October 1872 {Scot. Nat., 

 1873-4, vol. ii. p. 57), referred to in the original essay at p. 95, and 

 a few which had crossed over into Dee by Glen Dye by 1878, and 

 one or two — again at Fetteresso and at Inchmaldie — in the same 

 season of 1878, there was little to say of its progress in that 

 direction. 



Coming now to the Appendix, there are a few items of interest, 

 which I will shortly epitomise here : — 



I. E.g. — Under old grants, dated about 1343-1361, for the county 

 of Durham (England), re paying ' one wode-henne yerely to the 

 Bishop of Durham,' indicating pretty clearly the ' Ceiliog ' or Caper- 

 caillie. 



II. E.g. — An earlier allusion (poetical) than that of Boetius, in 

 1526, in 'A Brash of Wooing.' The poet — William Dunbar — died 

 about 1520. The Capercaillie is here referred to as ' my capercalyene ' 

 as a term of endearment. 



III. E.g. — As regards its former presence in Wales. 



IV. E.g. — As occurring, prior to extinction in Kinross, 1833. 



V. E.g. — As to extension in Forfarshire (refer to original essay, 

 chap. vii. p. 71 et seq.). Thus : "The great fir-woods of Munremmon 

 Moor stretch over 5000 acres south from Aldbar Castle, of which 

 some 3000 acres belong to me. It is full of Capercaillies. The first 



1 Scottish Naturalist, 1877-8. And in 1881 I made a short appeal to ornithologists 

 and correspondents to help to keep me posted up in any further advances of the species 

 in certain directions, including Kincardineshire and Dee {Scot. Nat., 1880). It is 

 perhaps of less importance now to keep all " steps of advance " up to date ; and there- 

 fore I have not considered it necessary to give so much continuous attention to details 

 as I did when preparing the original. But some items will be found in Sim's Pee, and 

 in our Moray volumes of the Fauna! Series. 



