282 Shufeldt on a Hybrid Grouse. I , u " 



This trunk skeleton has several points of considerable interest 

 about it to the ornithologist, and to me it has a special interest 

 inasmuch as many years ago I gave it as my opinion that of all 

 the genera of our North American Grouse, these two, Pedio- 

 cevtes and Ty/npanuckus, were the most nearly related to each 

 other. This opinion was based upon my studies of the osteology 

 of the entire group in this country, and it was published in the 

 Twelfth Annual Report of the U. S. Geological and Geograph- 

 ical Survey (Washington, Oct., 1S82, p. 700). Our hybrid 

 specimen, now at hand, supports this view. It proves that the 

 genera Pedioavtcs and Tympanuchus are so closely affined that 

 the species are fertile utter se. But I know of instances among 

 gallinaceous fowl, far more remotely related than these, where 

 successful crosses were produced. I have seen a matured hybrid, 

 the offspring of a common barnyard cock and a guinea hen. 

 The bird was chiefly white in plumage and had large spurs. 

 Mr. Smillie, the well-known photographer of the National 

 Museum, gives me an instance that came under his own personal 

 observation, where a domestic Mallard drake regularly paid 

 court to a certain hen, an ordinary barnyard fowl, but he never 

 ascertained whether any of the eggs she laid were ever placed 

 for hatching, and consequently could not say whether they were 

 fertilized or not. 



Here I would also like to invite attention to what Mr. R. 

 Bowdler Sharpe has said upon this point in his very interesting 

 article on 'Ornithology at South Kensington' which appeared 

 in l The English Illustrated Magazine' for December, 1SS7. 

 That eminent ornithologist remarks that "instances of cross- 

 breeding in confinement are plentiful. A Goldfinch will mate 

 with a Canary, or one species of Pheasant will interbreed with 

 another species, but in a wild state the instances of hybridiza- 

 tion are less frequent, and are commonly confined to game 

 birds. The Hooded Crow ( Corvus comix) , however, is 

 known to breed with the Carrion Crow (C. corone), wherever 

 the ranges of the two species overlap; and in the case of the 

 birds exhibited [in the halls of the South Kensington Museum], 

 a pure-bred Hooded Crow and a pure-bred Carrion Crow will 

 be seen, while the hybrid young ones partake, to a greater or 

 less degree, of the characters of both. The same occurs with 

 the Common Goldfinch ( Carduelis carduelis) and the Oriental 

 Goldfinch (C. caniceps)" (p. 67). 



