CAPERCAILLIE* 
TETRAO UROGALLUS 
(Plate I) 
Tetrao urogallus, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, p. 273 (1766); Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 248 (1837); 
Dresser, Birds Europe, v, p. 223, pis. 489, 490 (1873); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, ii, p. 440 
(1884); Saunders, ed. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, Hi, p. 45 (1884); Meyer, Unser Auer-Rackel-und 
Birkwild, etc., p. 1, pis. 1-3 (1887) ; Harvie-Brown, Capercaillie in Scotland (1888) ; Millais, 
Game Birds, p. 1, pis. and woodcuts (1892); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, pt. xxvii (1894); 
Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxii, p. 60 (1893) ; id.. Game Birds, i, p. 49 (1895) ; 
Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 491 U899); Millais, Brit. Game Birds, p. 1, 3 pis. (1909). 
DULT male (September to July). — Head and neck dark 
^rey, mottled with black, shading into dull black on 
/ ^ the forehead, sides of the head, chin and throat, the 
i % latter being more or less glossed with green ; mantle, 
J lower back, and rump black, covered with wavy white 
lines ; inter -scapular region washed with reddish- 
brown; wing -coverts and scapulars reddish-brown, finely mottled with 
black. Quills and primary coverts dark brown, the middle primary quills 
white towards the base of the outer web, and the secondary quills mottled 
with reddish-brown on the outer web, and tipped with white. Chest, dark 
glossy green, shading into black on the breast and abdomen, most of the 
feathers of the abdomen and flanks tipped, and mixed with white ; thighs 
and vent mostly white; feathers on the legs brownish -black, both the 
upper and under tail-coverts black, tipped with white; tail black, with an 
irregular marbled white band across the terminal half of the feathers. 
Axillaries and under wing -coverts white, a few of the outermost ones 
being dark brown. Bill yellowish horn-colour ; feet dark leaden-grey. 
Wattle above the eye scarlet. 
Total length about 35 inches ; wing 14*6 inches ; tail 12*3 inches ; tarsus 
2*8 inches. 
July to September. — ^The eclipse -plumage of the male capercaillie is 
not yet known, as no examples of this species killed in July and August 
are at present available for examination. That it has an eclipse -plumage 
is, however, pretty certain, for in the allied species from Kamchatka 
{Tetrao kamtschaticus) we know that such is the case. A male of the latter 
species killed in Kamchatka on August 14 by Major G. E. H. Barrett- 
Hamilton, and now in the British Museum, is in full moult, with the 
*The name Capercaillie, or Capercailzie, as sometimes written, is said to be derived from the Celtic gabur, a 
goat, and coille, a wood, i.e. “ Goat of the Wood,” in allusion to the long beard-like feathers on the throat of the male 
bird. But see Harting, Handbook of British Birds, 1901, p. 128. 
B 
1 
