584 NOTES ON THE HYBRID GROUSE. 



their plumage, so that the cocks could be distinguished from 

 the hens, and that he at once recognized them as being 

 Hybrid Grouse. 



It is a remarkable fact that both the cocks of the Caper- 

 caillie and the Blackgame fight shy of the Hybrid Cocks, 

 and that the latter can disturb the drumming-places of the 

 others and even spoil them for a whole season. The keepers 

 of both the shootings where I killed hybrids informed me that 

 these birds fight with the Capercaillie as well as with the 

 Blackcocks, and that, big as the former are, they are put to 

 flight by their smaller relatives. 



Before concluding these unfortunately very incomplete 

 notes, I cannot refrain from urging all ornithologists and 

 lovers of nature to pay great attention to this very interesting 

 and still undecided question of the Hybrid Cock. Observa- 

 tions made in the open, external measurements of the various 

 parts of the body, notes on the skeleton and plumage, are all 

 still greatly lacking, while the main points which we must 

 try to establish are : 



1. Whether Hybrid cocks and Hybrid hens are the parents 

 of the broods of Hybrid Grouse that are now met with ; or 

 whether it is not a hen Capercaillie or a Greyhen which leads 

 about these so-called young of the Hybrid Grouse. 



2. Whether Hybrid cocks and Greyhens are not still ex- 

 clusively the parents of the Hybrid Grouse, and whether the 

 true Hybrid hen does not remain barren. 



3. Whether the cock Capercaillie and the Hybrid hen, the 

 Hybrid cock and the hen Capercaillie, or the Blackcock and 

 the Hybrid hen do not interbreed. 



These are the questions which seem to me the most im- 

 portant to decide in order that the vague theories which have 

 hitherto existed may be cleared up ; but I am well aware of 

 all the difficulties attendant on the study of so rare a bird in 

 the wild state. 



