56 



TETRAONID^. 



dark bill, and the absence of the large white spot of the male 

 bird on the tail, which was finely spotted with greyish-red.* 

 That this sterility is not always a consequence of old age, 

 is proved by the fact that many of these females are young 

 birds ; but in all those dissected by Nilsson the ovarium was 

 more or less diseased ; and the older the female, the closer 

 was the resemblance she bore to the male. A figure of a 

 barren female of this description is given below from Nilsson. 



Like many gallinaceous birds, the Capercaillie in confine- 

 ment will breed with other species, and the first result of 

 the earliest importation to Braemar was the production of a 

 hybrid between the sole surviving male and a common barn- 

 door Hen. In Mr. Lloyd's ' Game Birds,' already cited, 

 * Ornithology of Nortbein Norway, p. 48. 



