CAPERCAILLIE. fi99 



Tctrao medius, Tctrao hj/bridus, and Urogallua hj/bridus ; 

 some considering the bird a distinct species, and otlicrs only 

 a hybrid. There is even reason to believe that it formerly 

 existed in Scotland, contemporary with the Capercaillie. Mr, 

 G. T. Fox, in his Synopsis of the contents of the Newcafetle 

 Museum, published in 1827, quotes the Tunstall MS. at 

 page 78, in the following words : " I know some old Scotch 

 gentlemen, who say they remember when young there were 

 in Scotland both the Cock of the Wood, as also the Hybri- 

 dus :" and at page 245 Mr. Fox has given a figure of this 

 last-named bird, from a specimen in the Newcastle Museum, 

 which was engraved on Copper by Robert Bewick from a 

 drawing made by his father, Thomas Bewick. The bird has 

 since been figured by Gould, Werner, and others. The 

 figure of the bird given on the next page was taken from a 

 coloured representation illustrating the Fauna of Scandinavia 

 by M. Nilsson. 



A beautiful specimen of this bird, exhibited by Mr. Gould 

 at the Zoological Society in the spring of 1831, was thus 

 briefly described in comparison with the Capercaillie, in the 

 Proceedings of the Society for that year, at page 73. " In 

 the Tetrao viedius the beak is black ; the shining feathers on 

 the front of the neck are of a rich orleans-plum colour ; and 

 of the eighteen feathers of the tail the outer ones are the 

 longest. In the Cock of the Wood the beak is white ; the 

 feathers on the front of the breast are of a dark glossy green ; 

 and the centre feathers of the tail are the longest.'" There is 

 a fine specimen in the collection at the British Museum. 



Females of this hybrid, as I have before mentioned, appear 

 to be much more rare than the males. Two examples are 

 said to be preserved in the Royal Museum at Stockholm, 

 and one in the Museum at Geneva, which M. Neckcr, in his 

 Memoir on the Birds of Geneva, says, was obtained from the 

 pine forests of Mount Jura in winter; there is also in the 



