The Capercaillie 
17 
Females assuming the whole or partial dress of the male are not by any means 
uncommon. Mr. Harvie-Brown cites only four instances known to him up to 1888, but 
he has probably seen and heard of many since that date. I have seen quite fifty such 
abnormal females, and possess three — two of which I shot myself at Murthly. One of 
these was in the perfect dress of the other sex and looked like a dwarf male. I believe 
that one of these barren females assuming the male dress is found in every two or 
three hundred specimens that are killed ; so that the variety is commoner in this species 
than in any of our gallinaceous birds. 
Albinistic varieties of the Capercaillie are very rare in this country. I have only 
seen two Scotch examples — namely, a cream-coloured female shot by Mr. Malloch at 
Fowlis Wester in 1891, and now in the possession of Mr. Turner, and a very large 
adult male, partly white, shot by Colonel Stuart Richardson at Ballathie in November 
1889. This bird lived at Murthly for some time, and I tried hard to shoot it, but 
never obtained a chance. It disappeared for two seasons, and when Colonel Richardson 
killed it he kindly sent it to me. A figure of this bird appears in Game Birds and 
Shooting Sketches, p. 47. 
These albinistic varieties are not very rare in Scandinavia and Russia. There are 
many beautiful examples in the museums of Lund, Stockholm, Bergen, Christiania, and 
St. Petersburg. The Hon. Walter Rothschild also possesses some notable examples in 
his magnificent collection. 
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