2 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
Adult Female. — Bill not so strong as the male; upper mandible brown with bone- 
coloured edge, lower mandible darkish yellow ; throat, buff ; neck, buff with black bars 
edged with grey ; mantle, dark buff with broad black bars and brown-grey edges well 
vermiculated with black ; scapulars the same, the larger feathers tipped broadly with 
white ; lower back and rump, buff (concealed), and black edged with grey ; tail, well 
rounded, rich red-brown barred with black and tipped with grey ; wings, brown and 
buff ; chest, rich red-brown ; flanks and belly, buff, barred with black and tipped with 
white; 1 breast, white; under tail-coverts, buff, black and white; legs, pale brown, faintly 
barred with black and grey suffusions of colour ; toes, bare and pectinated. Length from 
26 to 30 inches. Weight, 4 to 7 lbs. 
Both adult males and females have a very distinct light and dark form. 
There is a great similarity between the young in down of Capercaillie, black grouse, 
and red grouse. All are light buff in colour, with spots and markings of black, and it 
is difficult to adequately describe their peculiarities. Young Capercaillie may, however, be 
recognised by their larger feet and bills and longer legs. At birth they are naturally 
much bigger than the other species. The loose statement, found in several works, that 
young Capercaillie in immature plumage " at first resemble females " is quite incorrect. 
Until two months old they have a very distinct immature dress, quite unlike either 
parent. It is more like the immature black grouse, being brown and grey, shading to 
a very light grey on the under parts. The chest is a mixture of reddish brown and buff 
grey, finely barred with brown-black. Crown of head, brown ; neck and nape, grey ; 
throat, light grey. In young males the ear coverts are a very distinct black ; wings, a 
light brown ; many of the median coverts with the shaft buff and the points greyish 
white; legs, grey buff. About the 1st of August the adult plumage is seen replacing 
the first plumage, and young males weigh about 2^ lbs. ; females half a pound less. 
From this time they increase in weight very rapidly, being full-grown by October 1st. 
Young males of the first year are easily recognised by their short tails, indifferent 
plumage, and small bills. Both sexes continue to grow in size and beauty until the 
third year. 
Distribution. — Bones of the Capercaillie have been found in the kitchen middens 
of Denmark, showing that these birds must have existed in Denmark at an early age, 
for it is known that the beech groves of the present day have lasted for many genera- 
tions, since the destruction of the oak forests which preceded them. Before the oak 
age was the era of pines, in which the Capercaillie lived. The remains, too, of this 
bird are stated by Professor Newton to be rare in caves, but that he has found relics 
in the caves of Aquitaine, in the station of Saleve (Switzerland), Vererzi (Liguria), 
Brumigel, and Lacombe-Tayac. Its bones have also been discovered in a cave in 
Teesdale, Yorkshire. It is curious that no relics of this bird have been found amongst 
British prehistoric remains, and especially that they are absent from the kitchen middens 
of Scotland, where we should expect to find them. 
At the present day the Capercaillie, in its true and sub-specific forms, extends from 
Great Britain to Kamtschatka— Lake Baikal being, so far as we know at present, about 
the eastern limit of T. urogallus ; to the north it goes as far as 67° N. In southern 
1 In an example of the white type hardly any buff is seen. 
