NOTES AND QUERIES. 301 



until a few years ago, it was most unusual to see, were far more 

 abundant than they have been before. It is likely they will rise into 

 greater favour, for they have delicate white flesh, are excellent eating, and 

 sell readily at from three shillings to four shillings a brace. Willow Grouse 

 (called " Ptarmigan " by the dealers), on the other hand, were very far from 

 being in their customary abundance. Nineteen-twentieths of the so-called 

 Ptarmigan are Willow Grouse, and the reason I take to be, not so much 

 that the true Ptarmigan lives in inaccessible places, as that it is far less 

 numerous as a species. One game-dealer received a consignment of the 

 Grey Partridge from Russia, very slightly differing in plumage from our 

 own, which is considered to be exactly the same species, the principal 

 difference being in the pectoral spot, or horse-shoe, which in some of the 

 old males was a deep chocolate, almost black on the edges. If any evidence 

 were wanting that game-birds are not decreasing, — although Black Grouse 

 may be suffering in some parts from drainage, and Quails from their 

 indiscriminate massacre in spring, — a single glance at the cargoes which 

 come to this country iu the winter ought to be enough. It is probable 

 that Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Germany furnished the Black Grouse 

 which came over last winter, and no doubt plenty more remain where so 

 many came from. One hundred Waxwings were sent from Russia, as 

 I was informed by Mr. Brazener, of Brighton, at whose shop several of 

 them may be seen, set up as beautifully as any English specimen. These 

 came with the game, but were no doubt intended for the benefit of bird- 

 stuffers, to whom of course they would be sold. In Russia many are sent 

 to market, and sold for a few " copecks," with Pine Grosbeaks and other 

 rarities. — J. H. Gurnet, Jun. (Northrepps, Norwich). 



Hybrids amongst Birds.— In thanking Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., for his 

 notes on this subject (p. 256), I take the opportunity of making a few remarks 

 on hybrids, including those he has specially mentioned. As regards the 

 Blackbird and Thrush hybrids, I am, like himself, not a great believer in 

 them, and I should be disposed to doubt their existence altogether unless 

 I had something more decidedly apparent than mere brown colour on a 

 Blackbird — as, for instance, the spotted breast-feathers and shorter tail of the 

 Thrush, either one or the other being sure to appear on a true Blackbird 

 and Thrush hybrid. I believe that wild-bred hybrids are extremely rare, 

 and are generally, if not always, produced through either one or the other of 

 the parent birds being unable to obtain a proper mate, and this would 

 be exceedingly unlikely in the case of either the Blackbird or the Thrush. 

 Some years since, when Black-game were very scarce — in fact, nearly 

 extinct — in the adjoining county of Carmarthen, I heard of an old Black- 

 cock that always accompanied some hen Pheasants on the farm where he 

 had been bred, his Grey-hens having unfortunately been killed. Some 

 hybrids were the result, some of which were killed, and, I regret to add, eaten. 



