66 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



ture have almost, if not quite, reached generic distinctness, while 

 the colors have remained essentially unaltered. The same may be 

 said of Junco insularis, Thryomanes hrevicauda, and Colaptes rnji- 

 pileus, while the remaining species, Regalus ohscurus, Saljnndes gua- 

 dahiperisis, and Pipilo consohrinus are either more recent arrivals or 

 species in which the process of change has been comparatively 

 slow. 



AN UNDESCRIBED HYBRID BETWEEN TWO NORTH 

 AMERICAN GROUSE. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



In the pi'eparation of the following paper I have hesitated not a 

 little as to the propriety of giving a name to the bird about to he 

 described. That it is a hybrid between the Pinnated Grouse 

 {Cupidonia cupido) and the Southern race of the Sharp- tailed 

 Grouse (Fedioecetes phasianelhis var. columhiamis) is unquestionable, 

 and, further, I consider it almost equally certain that offspring 

 resulting from such unnatural connections are of regular, perhaps 

 even not uncommon, occurrence wherever the two just mentioned 

 species are found together. Indeed, I am aware at the time of 

 writing, of three other similar specimens in private cabinets, and I 

 have heard of additional ones. Although I have examined but one 

 besides my own, I understand that they are all in every way nearly 

 identical, and the fact of their having been'procured from different 

 localities must go far towards proving that their occurrence is by 

 no means exceptional or luiique. Granting this to be a fact, it 

 seems reasonable that so distinctly specialized a form should bear a 

 distinguishing name, for though certainly the result of a mesalliance, 

 and combining in itself characters peculiar to two different species, 

 it is yet unlike either. 



But I do not claim originality for a system that has been long 

 established among European authorities. In respect to the name 

 to be adopted I shall follow the practice of Mr. Eobert Collett. 

 This gentleman, in writing upon the " Rakkelhane," a hybrid be- 

 tween Tetrao urogallus and T. tetrix, says,* it " is a compound and 



* Remarks on the Ornithology of Northern Norway by llobert Collett. From 

 the Forhandl. Vidensk. Selsk. Christiania, 1872. (Page 50 of the reprint.) 



