THE HYBRID GROUSE. 589 



tail without white terminal bars, and all the parts of the body 

 larger and stronger. 



fi From this description it is evident that the male of the 

 Middle Wood- Grouse closely resembles the Blackcock, so 

 closely, indeed, that Gmelin (Syst. i. p. 748) calls it ( Tetrao 

 tetrix, var. 7' The most striking differences lie in its tail, 

 which, compared with that of the Blackcock, looks as if it 

 had been clipped, and in its size. 



" The young plumage of this Wood-Grouse is not yet 

 known." 



The detailed description of the female would be too long to 

 quote in its entirety, but it contains certain passages which 

 are interesting to us at the present moment, and which I 

 must cite as briefly as possible. 



Brehm writes : " The discovery of the female of our Middle 

 Wood-Grouse is not only of great importance for natural 

 history in general, but also for the specific status of the bird 

 itself; for although it has been known since the time of 

 Brisson and Linnseus, there has always been a great division 

 of opinion as to its being a distinct species. In the ' Mus. 

 Carls/ of Sparrm. (fasc. i. T. 15) there is a very good figure 

 of the old male under the name of ' Tetrao hybridus; Hybrid 

 Wood-Grouse.' Brisson, in his ' Orn.' v. i. p. 191, sp. 2 A, 

 calls it Tetrao minor pundatus; that is to say, the Small 

 Spotted Capercaillie ? ! Gmelin, in Syst. i. p. 748, considers 

 it to be a variety of the Blackcock, for he designates it as 

 Tetrao tetrix, var. y. Bechstein alludes to it as the Hybrid 

 Wood-Grouse (see his i Naturgeschichte Deutschl.' 2ed. 3 pt. 

 p. 1335). Leisler, at the end of the second volume of his 

 additions to Bechstein's ' Naturgesch. Deutschl.,' was, as far 

 as I know, the first to write of this Wood-Grouse as a distinct 

 species, and to publish a very accurate figure of the male 

 after its first moult. He is followed by Temminck, in his 

 i Naturgeschichte der Tauben und Hiihner,' and in his 



