343 
Mr Dresser exhibited at the Zoological Society in April, 
1876, a supposed cross between the black grouse and the hazel 
grouse, Bonasa betulina, which had been received from Norway. 
The male parent, it was considered probable, had been the hazel 
grouse. Hybrids are by no means rare in Sweden, between the 
Capercailly and the black grouse; also between the black grouse 
and the willow grouse ; while Collett recorded one of the latter 
pairing with a barn-door fowl. 
Professor Newton showed, at a meeting of the same society 
on November 5th, 1878, the skin of a supposed hybrid between 
the red grouse, Lagopus scoticus, and the ptarmigan, P. mutus, 
shot out of a covey of grouse, and in a locality frequented by 
both species. In the Field (August 25th, 1888) was recorded a 
supposed hybrid between the red grouse and the ptarmigan, shot 
on August 16th on the Garth Moors. It was a young cock shot 
(along with the old hen) out of a covey of six: none of the 
others exhibited such a peculiarity of colouring. 
In the year 1843, at Castle Martyr, in the county of Cork, a 
male black swan paired with a female white one. The latter laid 
six eggs and hatched four cygnets. Before they were six 
months old three of these little ones met with untimely deaths. 
The survivor resembled its male progenitor about the head, but 
its female parent in its body, and it wasa female. In 1845 
this hybrid paired with its male parent and laid four eggs, but 
they did not hatch (P.Z.S., 1847, p. 97). The Polish swan has 
likewise bred with the common form, and in 1883 a pair of these 
cross-breeds had again laid in the society’s gardens, but the 
eggs were not hatched when the report was made. 
Mr Eyton crossed the Chinese goose with the common goose, 
from which he reared two hybrids, but from separate sittings. 
From these two hybrids he obtained a hatching of eight 
(second generation of) hybrids, the parents being brothers and 
sisters. Darwin procured two of these hybrids, and from them 
(brothers and sisters) raised five extremely fine birds from two 
hatches, which in every respect resembled their parents. Dr 
Goodacre (P.Z.S., 1879) questioned if the two original parents 
were specifically distinct, and he made the following crosses :— 
x2 
