822 Dr. E. Lonnbcrg on a remarkable Capercaillie. 



22nd of February, 1900; and, finally, my second, specimen 

 in the same district about a month earlier. The locality in 

 which the remaining two of the eight specimens recorded 

 were shot is unknown. In the present state of our knowledge 

 it must he assumed that Central Finland is the home of this 

 peculiar Capercaillie. 



How many more specimens may have been killed and eaten 

 it is of course impossible to say. It is not, however, probable 

 that all could have fallen into the hands of persons interested 

 in ornithology, and thus have been preserved. The females 

 are presumably more similar to the hen of the typical Caper- 

 caillie, and therefore have as yet escaped detection. Such a 

 conclusion may be drawn from the parallel case of the female 

 of the hybrid between the Black Grouse and the Capercaillie, 

 which is so seldom found and is overlooked in consequence of 

 its likeness to its maternal parent. 



It remains to try to explain the origin of this remarkable 

 bird. It will perhaps be best at once to exclude every idea 

 of a hybrid origin. There is not a single characteristic that 

 could be interpreted as a result of hybridization. Not even 

 an eventual secondary crossing between the Capercaillie and 

 the Rackelhane, or Black Grouse-Capercaillie hybrid, would 

 help to explain any single feature in this bird, because there 

 is no characteristic to be found that is common to this bird 

 and a Rackelhane. It is the more impossible as some 

 characteristics that are common to the Capercaillie and the 

 Rackelhane are exactly those which are missing in this bird — 

 for instance, the white spots on the wing-margin and on the 

 under-tail-coverts, &c. The tail of this bird is small, but it 

 has the same general shape as that of the Capercaillie and 

 not of the hybrid, and so on. 



The specimens must therefore be of unmixed origin. It 

 is well known that barren females of the Capercaillie assume 

 more or less the plumage of the male. Everybody that has 

 any knowledge of such " hahnenfedrige Auerhenuen" will 

 perceive at a glance that there is no such phenomenon in this 

 case. The barren female is at once recognised by its small 

 size, white-spotted feathers on the lower side, &c. It has, as a 



