256 BULLETIN" 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



entire underparts, throat, and neck tufts were deep rufous (red- 

 dish brown). 



William Brewster (1882 and 1895) called attention to four speci- 

 mens exhibiting the red phase in which there was but little variation 

 with respect to the depth and extent of the reddish brown or chest- 

 nut coloring. The upper parts of the birds were strongly suffused 

 with reddish brown, while most of the underparts were clear reddish 

 or rusty chestnut and the usual blackish chestnut bars were nearly 

 or quite wanting on the sides. All four specimens examined by 

 Brewster were males. 



Cases of albinism, in which there is a lack of pigment, resulting 

 in a white plumage, have been frequently noted. Some of the albi- 

 nos are not pure, but may have a little pigment in certain of the 

 feathers, giving them a dusky appearance. 



An albinistic specimen collected March 6, 1893, near the Missouri 

 River, Iowa, is in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. This bird is white, with the exception 

 of minor, pale, rusty brown crossbars and markings. 



J. A. Spurrell (1917) records a very interesting case of an albino 

 in Sac County, Iowa, which attained quite a local reputation because 

 the bird was so clever that it eluded all attempts to trap it. The 

 hunters in the vicinity made a point to spare the " white chicken " 

 in the hope that it might be captured alive. 



Hybrids between the prairie chicken and the sharp-tailed grouse 

 have been noted by many observers. In Wisconsin, where the ranges 

 of the two species overlap, it is a common experience to see them 

 associated together at all seasons of the year, and it is not at all 

 surprising that they frequently interbreed. 



J. H. Gurney (1884) described a male hybrid between the sharp- 

 tailed grouse and the prairie chicken in which the pinnae were 

 present, but only one-fourth of an inch long. The tail was a hybrid 

 gray between the brown of the sharp-tailed grouse and the white of 

 the prairie chicken. The sides of the toes were only slightly feath- 

 ered and the general coloration was intermediate between the two 

 species. 



A hybrid between the prairie chicken and the sharp-tailed grouse 

 in which the elements of the prairie chicken predominated has been 

 reported by F. C. Lincoln (1918). The author has examined a 

 hybrid specimen in the possession of Mrs. H. M. Hales, of Hancock, 

 Waushara County, Wis., which also resembles the prairie chicken 

 in most of the characters of its plumage. 



William Eowan (1926) figures and describes two female hybrids 

 of the sharp-tailed grouse and the prairie chicken collected in Al- 

 berta, Canada. One individual collected near Edmonton resembles 



