NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 73 



capercailzie, blackgame, guinea-fowl and 

 common poultry. The hybrids between 

 pheasant and domestic fowl are dis- 

 tinguishable from those between pheasant 

 and blackgame by the tail, which in the 

 former cross always has some feathers 

 considerably elongated, while in the latter 

 the middle feathers only are slightly 

 longer than the rest, the whole tail being 

 shorter and rounder. Some sixty in- 

 stances are recorded of crosses between 

 pheasants and blackgame;^ while four 

 hybrids between pheasant and capercailzie 

 have been verified,^ two, probably of the 

 same brood, at Arden in Dumbartonshire 

 during the winter of 1890, one from Sir 

 Arthur Grant's estate of Monymusk in 



1 Zoologist for 1906, pp. 321-330 : British Birds, Oct. 

 1912. Articles by Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, M.A., who 

 has established the following occurrences :— England— 

 Shropshire 10 ; Devon 7 ; Derbyshire 6 ; Notts 6 ; Corn- 

 wall 4 ; Northumberland 4 ; Hampshire 8 ; Yorkshire 

 2; Staffordshire, Surrey, Norfolk, Dorset, Warwick, 

 Suffolk, one each : Wales— Brecon 3 ; Merioneth 1 : 

 Scotland— Wigtownshire 3 ; Peebles, Lanark, Ayrshire, 

 Mull, Kirkcudbright, one each ; also one of unknown 

 origin, making a total of sixty authenticated specimens. 



2 Paper by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke. Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History 1898. 



