BLACK GROUSE. 71 



tlie Zoological Society a male hybrid between the Pheasant 

 and Black Grouse. It was observed that this was the third 

 specimen which had been sent to the Society for exhibition 

 within a comparatively short space of time. The first bird, 

 from Cornwall, was more of a Grouse in appearance than a 

 Pheasant ; the second, Mr. Eyton's bird, from Shropshire, 

 was more Pheasant-like ; but the present bird was decidedly 

 intermediate, exhibiting characters belonging to both. The 

 head, neck and breast, were of a rich dark maroon colour, 

 the feathers on the breast shewing the darker crescentic 

 tips ; the upper part of the tarsi were covered with feathers ; 

 the back and wings mottled blackish-grey, like that of a 

 young Black-cock after his first moult, but with some 

 indications of brown ; the feathers of the tail rather short, 

 but straight, pointed, graduated, and Pheasant-like. It 

 was remarked that this bird more closely resembled the 

 hybrid figured by White than either of the specimens 

 previously exhibited. This bird was understood to have been 

 killed near Alnwick, and it is now by the liberality of the 

 Duke of Northumberland deposited in the British Museum. 



Dr. Edward Moore, in his ' Notes on the Birds of Devon- 

 shire,' published in the 'Magazine of Natural History' for 

 the year 1837, says, that a hybrid of this kind was shot at 

 Whidey, near Plymouth, by the Kev. Mr. Morshead. A 

 male Pheasant, a female Grouse, and one young, had been 

 observed in company for some time by the keeper. Mr. 

 Morshead shot the Pheasant, and, in a few days, the young 

 hybrid ; but the Grouse escaped. The young bird bears 

 the marks of both parents ; but the most prominent 

 characters are those of the Grouse. The space above the 

 eye, however, is not bare, as in the Grouse, but entirely 

 feathered, as in the Pheasant ; the whole of the neck is 

 covered with black feathers, somewhat mottled ; the tail is 

 not forked, but fan-shaped, and half as long as that of the 

 Pheasant ; the tarsi are bare, as in the Pheasant ; the 

 colour is generally, except the neck, that of the Pheasant ; 

 but it has the white spot on the shoulders, as in the Grouse. 



Another example, now figured from a coloured draw- 



