CAPERCA1LLIE. 55 



variation, but the extreme length may be set down at three 

 feet four inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the 

 wing, sixteen inches : the first feather two inches shorter 

 than the second, and the second one inch shorter than the 

 third ; the third and fourth equal in length, and longer than 

 the others. 



The adult female has the beak brown ; the irides hazel ; 

 the feathers of the head, neck, back, wings, upper tail- 

 coverts, and tail, dark brown, barred and freckled with 

 yellow-brown and tipped with white ; those of the neck in 

 front and the breast are of a fine yellowish- chestnut mar- 

 gined with black, and with an extreme edge of greyish- 

 white ; the feathers of the flanks, vent, and under tail- 

 coverts with broader edges of white ; legs greyish-brown ; 

 toes and claws pale brown. 



The whole length of the female described was twenty-six 

 inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, 

 thirteen inches. 



The young birds of both sexes in their first plumage 

 resemble the old female, the young males afterwards ob- 

 taining by slow degrees the colours which distinguish that 

 sex. Full plumage is not attained until the third year. 



Varieties of both sexes are not unfrequent, and Nilsson 

 mentions several. They are usually of a pale, faded grey, 

 with a few darker markings ; and Mr. Lloyd (Game Birds 

 and Wildfowl of Sweden and Norway) figures a nearly-white 

 female, which, when killed, had a brood of young ones with 

 her ; one of them being nearly full grown, and of the usual 

 colour of the Capercaillie hen. A male variety in the 

 Thunberg collection, at Upsala, has received the name of 

 Tetrao eremita. Sterile females, which have assumed to a 

 greater or less extent the plumage of the male, are often 

 met with : indeed Mr. Collett, of Christiania, says that he 

 finds them every winter, and one, obtained on the 18th 

 October, 1872, exhibited so striking a resemblance to an old 

 and fully-coloured male as to be with difficulty distinguished 

 from one. The distinguishing characteristics were the 

 beard-like feathers on the throat speckled with white, the 



