131 
THE WOOD GROUSE OR CAPERCAILZIE. 
Tetrao urogallus Linnaeus. 
Tetrao urogallus, Linmxus Wood Grouse, Pennant Te- 
trao auerhan, Temminck, Manuel, ii. p. 457. 
PLATE XIII. 
At the head of this section we place the caper- 
cailzie — the “giant grouse” as he is somewhere 
termed. First in size and first in nohle hearing, his 
strong and hooked hill and robust form resemble 
more a bird of prey than one of the Gallinse. The 
capercailzie was certainly the noblest of the British 
feathered game, but the attributes of strength, size, and 
heauty, have proved his destruction, and they have 
been for many years extinct. In ancient times they 
were tolerably abundant in the primeval forests of 
Scotland and Ireland. From the latter they appear 
to have been entirely extirpated at a very early pe- 
riod; while in Scotland the destruction was more 
gradual, but they dwindled away, and the last spe- 
cimen is recorded from fifty to sixty years since to 
have been killed in the neighbourhood of Inverness. 
There is, liowever, a prospect of the species being 
again introduced to the Scottish forests, and tlie fol- 
lowing interesting account of the attempts which 
