CAPERCAILLIE 
the females display much greater activity. The latter wander much 
more than the males, and the rapid spread of the species in Scotland 
during recent years is no doubt due to the fact that the hens sometimes 
travel long distances to nest. Often, too, finding no males of their own 
kind, wandering females pair with the blackcock, and the beautiful male 
hybrids not unfrequently shot in outlying localities are always a sure 
indication of the gradual spread of the capercaillie. Such hybrids appeared 
in Aberdeenshire and other northern counties long before the capercaillie 
had become common there. 
Like the black grouse, the capercaillie is polygamous, and the females 
are estimated by Mr Millais to outnumber the males by about ten to one. 
Seebohm, on the contrary, asserts that the males exceed the females 
in number, but this is no doubt a mistake. 
Hybrids . — As already mentioned, the female capercaillie frequently 
mate with the blackcock, especially in outlying districts, and the beauti- 
ful hybrids which result have been described and figured in the account 
of the latter species. (Plate V.) 
The capercaillie has also been known to cross with the willow-grouse 
and pheasant, the male hybrids with the latter being very ungainly looking 
birds, and possessing none of the beauty of either male parent. 
Enemies . — ^The enemies of the capercaillie are the same as those of 
the black grouse and the pheasant. The hens are often careless about 
covering up their eggs when leaving the nest, and as the latter is often 
situated in a comparatively open and exposed position, many eggs are 
destroyed by vermin. 
Eclipse-plumage . — Since the above was put in type, I have received, through 
the kindness of the Marquess of Breadalbane, several male capercaillies in 
full eclipse-plumage. The sides of the head and neck are covered with short 
grey feathers mottled with pale sandy -brown, and the chin and throat with 
short dull black feathers devoid of green gloss. On the sides of the head and 
neck, as well as on the chin and throat a few of the long pointed feathers of 
the breeding-plumage are usually retained and are very conspicuous among 
the short eclipse -feathers. These differ so little in general tint from the 
breeding -plumage, that it is difficult to see what advantage the bird derives 
from the change. Possibly it is the survival of an ancient plumage worn by 
the ancestral stock before the long pointed ornamental feathers on the sides 
of the head and throat had been developed in the modern bird. 
W. R. OGILVIE-GRANT. 
9 
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