62 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 



tail is complete, slightly forked as in the female black 

 grouse, but of only sixteen feathers, as in the red 

 grouse. The quills are twenty-six. The tarsi are 

 feathered all round, without a bare space behind. 

 The toes are also feathered a third down, as are the 

 interdigital membranes, and the plumage of these 

 parts is as bushy as in the red grouse. They are 

 margined with pectiniform scales, as in the black 

 grouse. The claws are very long, arched, with thin 

 parallel edges, like those of the red grouse and grey 

 ptarmigan.' l 



The bird just described, which we may con- 

 sider the type of this variety of hybrid, had the upper 

 parts generally minutely undulated with brownish 

 black and brownish red, with very narrow terminal 

 bands of white. The upper part of the head was 

 minutely mottled with brownish red, brownish black, 

 and grey, but the rest of the neck was black, with a 

 tinge of reddish purple. The primaries were greyish 

 brown. The tail was black, the eight middle feathers 

 narrowly tipped with white. On the lower parts the 

 feathers were black, tipped with white, those of the 

 sides being banded with red. The only hybrid be- 

 tween the red grouse and black-game that has hitherto 

 been obtained in England is a fine male preserved 

 1 British Birds, i. 162. 



