168 Brooks, A Hybrid Grouse. [April 



on the upper surface of a female Richardson's Grouse, and on the 

 lower of a male Sharp-tail. In size it is between the two species 

 with the following measurements : cT ad. wing, 8.5 inches; tail, 5.5 

 inches; middle toe and claw, 2.05 inches; culmen, .55 inches. 



The tail is evenly graduated, the center rectrices .85 inches 

 wide, outer .55 inches, falling short of the center pair by 1.5 inches. 

 Feet with pectinations well developed and claws very long, middle 

 claw .65. Feathers on tarsi long and dense, reaching beyond the 

 first joint of middle toe. A conspicuous 'comb' over the eye 

 deep yellow. 



The marking on crown of head, hind neck, dorsal region, and 

 scapulars very much resembles that of an adult female Richard- 

 son's Grouse; rump between the two species; wing coverts edged 

 and tipped with white, but with none of the conspicuous round 

 white spots of the Sharp-tail. Tail black, the central pair of 

 feathers with a broad band of freckled gray on tip; outer feathers 

 with diminishing tips of grayish white. 



The whole under surface is very similar to that of a male Sharp- 

 tailed Grouse; the V-shaped markings on the pectoral region are 

 broader, and the lower tail coverts almost immaculate. The 

 feathers on the center of abdomen are heavily marked with smoke 

 gray down their centers. 



I am also indebted to Mr. Green for the following account of 

 its capture: 



"On Sept. 15 I was going out for duck, as I had decided to shoot 

 no Prairie Chicken that season because of the wet hatching period 

 the spring before. On my way I passed Hiram Inglees's orchard 

 and went in to get some fruit; while eating plums this bird came 

 down off the mountain and flew all alone into the orchard and lit 

 in the longish grass. I took it for a blue grouse, and went over; 

 it was very tame, and all I could see was its head, which seemed 

 all blue grouse, so I flushed it, intending to put it in the bag, but 

 it got up so quietly and so near that I did not shoot, and it lit on 

 the orchard fence. As it went off I was puzzled at it and so fol- 

 lowed up to see it again; on the fence it bothered me more, for 

 one way it was blue grouse, and the other way chicken, and both 

 ways tame. I was not going to kill it unless it would fly and go 

 fast, and I let it go off again without intending to shoot, but just 



