INTERBREEDING OF RED GROUSE AND BLACK GROUSE 15 



ON THE INTERBREEDING OF THE RED GROUSE 

 (LAGOPUS SCOTICUS} AND THE BLACK 

 GROUSE (LYRURUS TETRIX}. 



By Rev. H. A. MACPHERSON, M.A. 



THE Red and Black Grouse are both so plentiful upon the 

 moors of the border counties of England and Scotland, that 

 I have long expected to come across some additional 

 instances of the well-known but rare union between Lagopus 

 scoticus and Lyrurus tetrix. It was therefore with great 

 pleasure that I recently identified no fewer than four birds 

 of this curious cross. My friend Mr. Michael Huthart rents 

 the shooting of Shalloch, Kirkcudbrightshire, a moor of 

 less than 3000 acres, upon which both Red and Black 

 Grouse nest in considerable numbers. The elevation of the 

 moor never exceeds 1300 feet above sea-level, but the Black 

 Game chiefly frequent the lower ground, which is full of 

 rushy, broken land. Mr. Huthart was shooting over the 

 moor with a party of friends upon the 26th of August 1896, 

 when he came across a covey of birds an old gray hen and 

 seven or eight young ones. The gray hen got away un- 

 scathed, but Mr. Huthart shot two of the young birds right 

 and left. On examination at the shop of Mr. R. Raine, the 

 courteous taxidermist who preserved them, we found them 

 to be male hybrids between the Red and Black Grouse. 

 These birds, by an unfortunate oversight, were not weighed. 

 Mr. Huthart was shooting the same moor upon the i6th 

 of September, when two birds got up, a few yards apart. 

 The right bird, which fell to Mr. Huthart's gun, proved to 

 be a young Blackcock ; but the left bird, which was shot by 

 a friend, was as certainly a female hybrid between the Red 

 and Black Grouse. This bird was shot in the same neigh- 

 bourhood as the two male hybrids first obtained. It was in 

 good condition, and weighed a trifle over I Ib. 1 1 oz. 



A careful search was made for additional specimens of 

 this cross, but only thoroughbred birds were killed until the 

 23rd of October, when Mr. Huthart's keeper noticed a sus- 

 picious bird, which he shot. This proved to be a beautiful 

 female hybrid, and was killed at a distance of about half a 



