430 Mr. H. Seebohm on Tetrao griseiventris. 



XLIII. On Tetrao griseiventris, a recently described Species 

 of Hazel-Grouse from North-east Russia. By HENRY 

 SEEBOHM. 



(Plate XI.) 



THE Grouse form a compact little genus, confined to the 

 Palsearctic and Nearctic Regions, and containing about a 

 score of well-defined species, some of which are again divi- 

 sible into climatic races or subspecies. Modern ornitho- 

 logists, suffering from the epidemic which has been called 

 the tf furor genericus " and the ' ' cacoethes dividendi," have 

 established no less than twelve genera for the reception of 

 these twenty or twenty-four species, to the no small incon- 

 venience of ornithologists whose powers of memory are not 

 unlimited. As might be expected, the characters upon which 

 these so-called genera are founded are not very reliable so 

 little, indeed, that the Willow-Grouse belongs to the genus 

 Tetrao in summer, but assumes the characters of the so- 

 called genus Lagopus in winter. 



The Hazel-Grouse (Tetrao bonasia) has a very wide range, 

 extending from the Pyrenees to Japan, and presents an 

 interesting example of a species which has a Siberian or 

 Arctic form. Tetrao bonasia septentrionalis is a very grey 

 bird, with very little rufous in its plumage, and has a shorter 

 tail than the typical form, towards which it gradually inter- 

 grades, as so many other Arctic forms do, both in the east 

 and in the west. The typical or subarctic form is found 

 in the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Carpathians, and again 

 in the valley of the Amoor and on the main island of Japan. 



It is not known that any form of Hazel-Grouse inhabits 

 the Caucasus ; but north-east of that range, near the sources 

 of the Petchora and the Kama, a nearly allied, but apparently 

 perfectly distinct, species occurs, Tetrao griseiventris. From 

 twenty to thirty examples of this new European bird have 

 been obtained ; so that all idea of its being an accidental 

 variety must be abandoned. It was first described by the 

 well-known Moscow ornithologist, Mons. M. A. Menzbier, in 

 1880 (Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. i. p. 105), and differs from 





