4 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
victitantes." Robert Lindsey mentions it as a bird of the table in the time of James 
V. (1528). 1 
Bishop Lesly (1578) tells us ! that it was found in Lochaber and other mountain 
districts at that time. Mr. Harvie-Brown has discovered an interesting letter written 
by King James VI. to the Earl of Tullibardine in 161 7, in which his Majesty, after a 
request for a regular supply of the birds, says, "The raritie of these fowles (Capercaillie) 
will both make their estimation the more pretious," &c. A perfect chain of evidence 
exists to the effect that the species was found throughout the fir woods of Scotland 
until the end of the eighteenth century. Pennant in his Tour in Scotland, 1769, seems 
to have seen only one, which "was killed in the woods of Mr. Chisholm, to the north 
of Inverness." It is quite uncertain when and where the last specimens of the original 
stock were seen and killed in Scotland, neither does there exist in any collection a 
perfectly authenticated specimen. It is certain, however, that it became extinct about 
the year 1800; for Montagu, although unaware of its absence in 1802 {Dictionary of 
British Birds), thus refers to it in his supplement (181 3) : "This bird, we believe, is 
now extinct in the British Dominions." Professor Newton places the extinction in 
Ireland at about 1760, and in Scotland "not much later." 3 The first importation of 
Capercaillie to Scotland came from Sweden, and were introduced at Mar Lodge by the 
Earl of Fife in 1827. Two more arrived at the same place in 1829, but the experi- 
ment proved a failure. In the autumn of 1837 and the spring of 1838, forty-eight 
Capercaillie were obtained in Sweden and turned out at Taymouth by the Marquis 
of Breadalbane. This proved completely successful ; and of their subsequent spread 
throughout Central Scotland I must refer my readers to Mr. Harvie-Brown's book, which 
contains all that was known until the year 1888. First extending along Loch Tay 
to the west, and then all along the Tay and Earn valleys, the species was known in 
1888 as far south as Larbert (Stirlingshire), west to Ardkinglass (Argyllshire), east 
throughout Forfarshire up to Stracathro in Kincardine, and north into Aberdeenshire. 
Since that date the range of Capercaillie in Scotland has gradually but surely advanced, 
until the birds have spread through Aberdeen, Elgin, Moray, Nairn, and Inverness-shire. 
In Midlothian it is an occasional straggler, about eight records being known. 
Three were seen in Dumfriess-shire in November 1905 (H. E. Gladstone, British Birds, 
September 1908). In the south-west, Sir Herbert Maxwell records two shot about 1874, 
whilst in Ayrshire a female was killed on December 14, 1905, near Tarbolton. 
To-day it is still very abundant about the neighbourhood of Taymouth. The 
Marquis of Breadalbane writes to me, February 4, 1909, as follows : — 
" The awful blow down that we have had here has had a very detrimental effect 
on Capercaillie, and spread them, one might almost say, far and wide. The first mis- 
fortune we had is an old story now — the Tay Bridge gale — then came a serious one 
that followed it, and another which came from the north-east and did great havoc 
here. One now finds Capercaillie in woods one never used to see them in before. 
I certainly think that they are not decreasing but rather the other way. 
"One great misfortune regarding the Caper is that when people have shoots they 
1 The Chronicles of Scotland, 1814. 1 Desc. Reg. Scotia. 
8 Ency. Brit., 9th edition, "Birds," p. 736, part xii. 
