312 TETRAONID.E. 



of Fclton, and having been sent to Twizcll, I was not only 

 immediately made acquainted with the occurrence, but Mr. 

 Selby has since supplied me with a coloured drawing of the 

 bird, from which the representation at p. 311 was executed. 



Hybrids between the Black and the Red Grouse have 

 been suspected, and in many parts of this country both spe- 

 cies inhabit the same ground ; but such a union is less likely 

 to happen with species that pair in their season, as do the 

 Red Grouse, than with those which, like the Pheasant, the 

 Capercaillie, and the Black Grouse, do not pair. Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray, in the first volume of his History of British Birds, 

 Indigenous and Migratory, page 162, has, however, men- 

 tioned three, describing in detail one bird supposed to have 

 been thus produced. This bird is, I believe, in the collec- 

 tion at the Edinburgh Museum. 



In Sweden there are two species of Ptarmigan ; one of 

 them, identical with the Ptarmigan of this country, inhabits 

 the mountains, and is called by M. Nilsson in consequence, 

 alpina : the other a larger bird, which inhabits the plains 

 and valleys, is called by M. Nilsson suhalpina. With this 

 latter species hybrids have been produced with the Black 

 Grouse, but these seem to be exceedingly rare. M. Nilsson 

 appears to have seen five examples, one of which being 

 figured in his coloured illustrations of the Fauna of Scan- 

 dinavia, I am enabled to insert a representation of this 

 prettily-marked bird. In a letter lately received from T. 

 Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Edinburgh, that gentleman says, 

 " When in Norway last summer, I saw, preserved at Chris- 

 tiania, several specimens of hybrids between the Black Cock 

 and the Capercailzie, a circumstance said to be of not very 

 uncommon occurrence ; I saw also in Mr. Eskmark's collec- 

 tion a specimen of hybrid betwixt the Black Cock and the 

 Ptarmigan, but which he told me was extremely rare." 



