1886. ] MR. R. COLLETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. 225 
I will therefore endeavour to recount the most important features 
which have hitherto been noticed concerning this hybrid, which, on 
account of its rarity, as well as its pretty and peculiar external 
appearance, is well suited to attract the attention of naturalists. 
The earliest account of this hybrid dates from the year 1788, 
as Sparrman at that time gave an illustration of it and briefly men- 
tioned it as ‘‘ Vetrao tetrix, mas, varietas” in the third issue of 
the ‘Museum Carlsonianum’ (pl. 65), without, apparently, having 
suspected its hybrid character. In 1795 this was first noticed 
by Sommerfelt (‘ Topographisk Journal for Norge,’ 14 Hefte, p. 50, 
Christiania, 1795), who described two specimens from the districts 
about Mjdsen in Southern Norway, which he regarded as a hybrid 
between Tetrao tetriv and Lagopus albus. From the description, 
which is comparatively detailed (see below), it is evident that the 
Specimens were males in winter plumage. 
Subsequently a male shot in Wermeland in Sweden in 1808 was 
mentioned and figured by Thunberg (Vet.-Akad. Handl. Stockholm, 
1808, p. 195), and he also recognized its hybrid character. 
The first who gave a more detailed and elaborated description of it 
was Nilsson in his ‘ Ornithologia Suecica’ in 1817, and subsequently 
in his various editions of his ‘Skandinavisk Fauna.’ Since then it 
has been occasionally treated of in different works on the fauna of 
Scandinavia, and here its winter plumage has also been given on 
plates, as in Nilsson, ‘ I]luminerade Figurer till Skandinavisk Fauna’ 
(plate 5); Lindblad, ‘Svenska Jiigareforbundets nya tidskrift,’ vol. xi. 
plate 4 (1873); Sundevall, ‘ Svenska Foglarna,’ plate 34 ; and Lloyd, 
‘Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway’ (London, 
1867), &e.? 
Distribution. 
The “‘ Rype-Orre”’ has hitherto only been found in Northern and 
North-eastern Europe, and is known from Norway, Sweden, and 
Northern Russia. 
According to a report which I have just received from Dr. Pleske 
(of St. Petersburg), these hybrids in Russia are not very unusual. 
Most of them are obtained in the game market; therefore no special 
information can be given concerning the localities in which they were 
procured. He believes that about eight specimens are at present 
preserved in the Museum at St. Petersburg, most of which are 
males in winter plumage. Dr. Meves, of Stockholm, informs me 
that in 1872 he saw two specimens in winter plumage in the Museum 
at Moscow, both males; whilst others, said to be females, were 
only partial albinos of the female Tetrao éetrix. Dr. Kolthoff, of 
Upsala, has also seen two male and one female Russian specimens. 
It is remarkable enough that as yet there is no proof of their 
occurrence in Finland ; for Mela says, “It has not been recognized 
‘In the ‘ Zeitschr. fiir die gesammte Ornithologie, 2 Jahrg. 1885, p. 47, 
tab. iii. (Budapest, 1885), Herr Henke has figured and treated of a specimen 
from Archangel under the name of Tetrao albo-tetrix hybridus, fem. This 
specimen is clearly only a partial albino of 7. feria, fem. 
