Dr. E. Lonnberg on a remarkable Capercaillie. 323 



rule, a better developed glossy green shield on the chest, but 

 usually retains here and there single typical female feathers, 

 and so on. The birds in question can still less be interpreted 

 as males in female plumage, or " henncnfedrige Auerhahne," 

 as they do not possess a single female feather. The figure 

 (PI. XVI.) will unfailingly prove this to every ornithologist 

 who is familiar with barren specimens of the Capercaillie 

 which have assumed the plumage of the opposite sex. 



The birds described here must consequently represent 

 some other kind of variation. Can they be offshoots of a 

 geographical subspecies ? This might be possible, although 

 the aberrations from the type are much greater and more 

 important than exist, as a rule, between a geographical sub- 

 species and the main species. This is the more striking 

 as the birds do not appear to come from some isolated 

 geographical area. It might, however, have happened that 

 the specimens recorded had wandered to the places where 

 they were shot from some other district ; but, if so, whence ? 

 The only country not far distant from Finland, and at the 

 same time somewhat isolated, is the Kola Peninsula. From 

 that country, however, they can hardly have come, for I 

 have a Capercaillie from that region which is quite typical 

 and agrees with Swedish specimens. In his work on the 

 ornithology of the Kola Peninsula, Pleske does not record 

 any aberrations observed by himself in the case of the 

 Capercaillie* On the authority of others he mentions, 

 however, that in addition to the normal Capercaillies, small 

 forms ("kleinwiichsige A.uerhuhner ") exist in this region, 

 and similar reports are found in the books of the older 

 authors, such as Pallas f, Nilsson J, &c. But these authors 

 do not give the slightest hint that the " small " Capercaillies 

 differ from the normal birds with regard to plumage. It 

 is, however, quite out of the question that so great an 



* 'UebersichtderSaugetiereundVogeldorKoIa-IIalbinsel: T. ii. Vogel 

 imd Nacbtrage.' St. Petersburg, L886. (Beitr. zur Kenntn. des Russ. 



Reicbes, Bd. ix.) 

 t Zoogr. Ross. ii. 

 J Skandinavisk Fauna, ii, 



y2 



