The game birds and wild fowl of Sweden and Norway : together with an account of the seals and salt-water fishes of those countries / by L. Lloyd.

  • Llewelyn Lloyd
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The game birds and wild fowl of Sweden and Norway : together with an account of the seals and salt-water fishes of those countries / by L. Lloyd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    30 Being desirous, when last in England, to learn how the Capercali were getting on in Scotland, as also if they had in any way changed their ordinary habits, I applied to Lord Brcadalbane for information on the sub- ject, which he kindly promised to give me after communi- cating with his keepers; but before receiving a reply to my inquiries', he was unhappily seized with the malady which proved fatal. Sir Alexander Campbell, a near relative of Lord Brcadalbane, however, told me that the Capercali were then as common about Taymouth Castle as the Black- Cock, but that it was quite impossible to estimate their number. That they had spread from Taymouth over all the more wooded parts of the Highlands as far as Aberdeen. That they at times took long flights, he himself having repeatedly seen them cross from one hill- side to another, a distance, perhaps, of a couple of miles. That they feed freely on the larch. That in the autumn they appear to confine themselves to certain zones, the places where they had previously been abundant being then all but deserted by them. That in the winter the males and females keep for the most part separate, the latter chiefly resorting to localities near the water, and being very tame;* that the cocks are then “packed,’’ and that he has often seen twenty and upwards together, and in the course of a single day as many perhaps as eighty. That hybrids between the Capercali and the Black-Cock are common, but \\\qvh parentage uncertain. * Lady Breadalbane lierself assured me tliat wlieu Liking an airing in her carriage on the hanks of Loch Tay, she lias repeateilly ilriven under the very ti’ees in which tlie Capercali hens wei’e perched, and tliat witliout tlicir Liking the slightest notice.
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