362 REMARKABLE HYBRIDS. 



crucified, it for a while hovered around the fatal tree, and at 

 length perched there; when, looking mournfully down on 

 the sufferer's blood, it sighed deeply, and gave utterance to 

 its plaintive, kurrie, kurrie, kurrie (Ku'{) that is, Lord, 

 Lord, Lord. Since that time it has never more been joyful, 

 but has constantly winged its flight around the world, repeat- 

 ing its sorrowful cry. 



The Columba gelastes, Temm. Up to 1842 this bird 

 was, I believe, only known as a denizen of Japan; but in 

 that year an individual was captured in Herjeadalen, one of 

 the most northern provinces of Sweden; and in 1850 a 

 second was taken living, still farther towards the north, in a 

 part of the country where neither tame nor wild doves are 

 found. From the former of these birds being evidently in 

 its first moult, the inference is, that it was bred nearer to 

 Scandinavia than Eastern Asia ; possibly, Swedish naturalists 

 suggest, in the very province where it was found. 



Hybrids between the dove and the black grouse, called 

 Duf-Orrar, have been met with occasionally in Scandi- 

 navia. One was shot in the middle of April, 1852, in 

 Dalecarlia. Its length, from the tip of the bill to the 

 extremity of the tail, was eighteen inches ; breadth, wings 

 extended, twenty-nine inches ; colour in general, that of the 

 common dove, without the enamel or ring round the neck ; 

 the bill black, like that of the black grouse. Above the eyes 

 were found the red combs, although at first sight not very 

 apparent. The legs were feathered to the toes. 



The Capercali, or Wood Grouse (Tjdder, Sw. ; Tetrao 

 Urogallus, Linn.) was pretty common with us, as also from 

 the one extremity of Scandinavia to the other that is, 

 wherever Barr-skogar are found ; for in woods consisting of 



