582 



NOTES ON THE 



The external and less important dimensions are not so 

 variable in proportion ; but I am only able to give those of 

 two of the cocks that I measured : 



I was fortunate enough to observe and kill two Hybrid 

 Cocks. The first I bagged in Southern Bohemia in a per- 

 fectly flat boggy district, only varied by a few small woods 

 among the fields. There the heaths and moorlands were well 

 stocked with Blackgame, but no Capercaillie were to be 

 found nearer than the thick woods a good many miles away. 

 This Hybrid Cock which had there taken up its position, 

 went about with the Blackcocks all day long, drummed at a 

 considerable distance from a little fir-wood upon the place 

 frequented by those birds, and visited the fields in the evening. 

 I had, however, but little opportunity of studying it, as I 

 killed it by a chance shot a few hours after my arrival in that 

 district. 



I therefore unfortunately missed the sight of a Hybrid 

 Cock drumming on the ground like a Blackcock ; but on a 

 second occasion, when in Northern Bohemia, I was more 

 successful. This bird, which the keepers had long known of, 

 drummed on a tree just like a Capercaillie, and in a wood 

 not frequented by that species. After I had waited a long 

 time, and the sun had already risen, the cock at last began to 

 sing, at first low, then loud, the pitch of its song resembling 

 neither that of the Capercaillie nor the Blackcock, but in its 

 rhythm and its divisions reminding me of the former, while 

 the " Grlocken" or " Zahlen" was represented by a " kra, kra," 



