360 TETRAONID^E. 



Amongst the game shot in the covers of the Earl of 

 Stamford, at Enville, on the 19th of December, 1855, 

 was a very remarkable and handsome bird, between the 

 Black Grouse and the Pheasant ; more resembling the 

 former than the latter, and weighing nearly 41bs. 



Hybrids between the Black and the Red Grouse have 

 been suspected, and in many parts of this country both 

 species 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 Phea- 

 sant, the Capercaillie, and the Black Grouse, do not pair. 

 Mr. Macgillivray, in the first volume of his History of 

 British Birds, Indigenous and Migratory, page 162, has 

 however, mentioned three, describing in detail one bird 

 supposed to have been thus produced. This bird is, I be- 

 lieve, in the collection at the Edinburgh Museum. 



In the month of September, 1855, I had the gratifica- 

 tion of seeing a fine example of a hybrid which had been 

 thus produced, the more interesting because its plumage 

 at once bore decided evidence of its hybridal origin. This 

 handsome bird was sent by Lord Mostyn from Wales, on 

 the 8th of September, to Mr. Williams, the well-known 

 animal -preserver in Oxford Street, by whose kindness I 

 was permitted to take a note of its appearance. The 

 head, neck, breast, and all the under surface of the body, 

 resembled the plumage of the young Red Grouse ; the 

 back, wings, upper tail-coverts, and the tail-feathers, were 

 as black as those parts in the Black Grouse; the tail- 

 feathers were elongated and forked, but being a young 

 bird of the year, and killed thus early in the season, the 

 most lateral of the tail-feathers had not begun to curve 

 outwards ; the legs were feathered to the junction of the 

 toes, but the toes were naked and pectinated, like those of 

 the Black Grouse. 



