THE CAPERCAILLIE. 
31 
THE CAPEKCAILLIE, OR WOOD GROUSE. 
Cock of the Wood. 
Tetrao urogallus, Linn. 
Has unfortunately long since been extinct. 
That so noble a bird — the chief of the European grouse — and abori- 
ginal inhabitant of our native forests should have become so, is much 
to be regretted ; but by the felling of the woods its doom was sealed. 
Giraldus, in his ‘ Topographia Hibernim ’ states, that this species (called 
by him Pavo sylvestris) was more common in Ireland than the red 
grouse, about the twelfth century. When the island was covered with 
native woods one can imagine this to have been the case, but even if 
less abundant, the nature of its haunts would cause it to be more 
frequently met with than the red grouse, and consequently lead to the 
belief that it was more common. Willoughby (1678) observes, “This 
bird is found on high mountains beyond seas, and as we are told in 
Ireland (where they call it Cock of the Wood), but nowhere in England.” 
He thus concludes his description : “ The flesh of this bird is of a 
delicate taste and wholesom nourishment, so that being so stately a bird, 
and withal so rare, it seems to be born only for princes’ and great men’s 
tables” ! O’Elaherty, in his “West or H-Iar Connaught,” written in 
1684, remarked: — “I omit other ordinary fowl and birds, as bernacles, 
wild geese, swans, cocks of the wood, woodcocks, choughs [jackdaws?], 
rooks, Cornish choughs with red legs and bills, &c.” p. 13. The Irish 
statutes 11 Anne, ch. 7, recite, “ that the species of cocks of the wood 
(a fowl peculiar to this kingdom) is in danger of being lost,” and pro- 
hibit the shooting of them “ for seven years,” Smith, in his ‘ History 
of Cork’ (1749), observes, that “it is now found rarely in Ireland, 
since our woods have been destroyed.” Rutty, in his 'Natural History 
of Dublin’ (1772), mentions that “one was seen in the county of 
Leitrim about the year 1710, but they have entirely disappeared of late, 
by reason of the destruction of our woods.” Vol. i. p. 302. — Pennant, 
in his 'British Zoology’ (1776), states that “about the year 1760 
a few were to be found about Thomastown, county of Tipperary.” 
The 27th Geo. III. “ prohibits killing moor game, heath game, 
grouse, pheasant, partridge, quail, land rail, and wild turkey, between 
