346 MR. DRESSER ON THE BLACK AND HAZEL GROUSE. [Apr. 4, 



shot off ; and I have seen several interesting hybrids between the 

 Black Grouse and the Willow Grouse. Mr. Collett names an 

 instance of a male Willow Grouse having been seen to pair with a 

 barndoor Fowl ; and I have heard of the Black Grouse crossing with 

 the Red Grouse ; but I have never seen a specimen of a hybrid between 

 these two ; and I may add that I can find no record in the works of 

 the Scandinavian authors of a hybrid between the Hazel Grouse and 

 the Black Grouse having hitherto been met with. The specimen 

 exhibited belongs to John Flower, Esq., F.Z.S., who has intrusted 

 it to me for examination and exhibition, and who gives me the fol- 

 lowing particulars respecting it : — 



" I bought this bird of W. Smithers, poulterer, near the Cannon- 

 Street Railway Station, on March 16, 1876. It had passed through 

 several hands before it came to Mr. Smithers; and all that I have 

 as yet been able to learn of its past history is that it came from 

 Norway. Some one who has had the bird seems to have been 

 aware that it was something out of the common, as I found a piece 

 of cotton wool had been placed in the oesophagus, no doubt to pre- 

 vent the feathers being soiled by the escape of matter through the 

 mouth ; and judging from its appearance, the wool had been there 

 Borne considerable time. 



" The weight of the bird, which was in verjr fair condition, was a 

 trifle over 1 lb. 9 oz. The weight of a grey hen, which I weighed 

 for the purpose of comparison, I found to be 1 lb. 10^ oz. 



" On dissection the hybrid proved to be a male. The intestines* 

 and caeca were as nearly as possible exactly like those of the grey 

 hen, except that the intestine of the hybrid (measured from the 

 gizzard to the lower end of the caeca) was 3 inches shorter than in 

 the grey hen, the length between these points being, for the grey 

 hen 54 inches, for the hybrid 51 inches. The length of the caeca 

 in both was 24 inches. 



" The crop was empty ; but the gizzard contained a quantity of 

 small stones, most of them of white quartz, and a quantity of twigs 

 and vegetable matter, including one bud of a birch catkin. 1 turned 

 the contents of the gizzard out into a small basin of warm water ; 

 and these, when stirred, emitted rather a sweet aromatic smell, 

 which must have arisen from the vegetable matter which the bird 

 had eaten. 



" Thinking something might be learnt from the colour of the 

 pectoral muscles when cooked, 1 had the muscles of the hybrid and 

 of the grey hen baked. Those of the grey hen then presented the 

 usual contrast characteristic of the Black Grouse ; but the muscles 

 of the hybrid were nearly white, the lower muscle being slightly 

 brighter in colour than the upper one. The flesh of the hybrid 

 was much inferior in flavour to that of the black Grouse, being 

 rather dry and tasteless, much like the flesh of a red-legged 

 Partridge. I have preserved the breast-bone and pelvis ; and they 

 accompany this memorandum." 



I may remark that, so far as my own experience goes, and from 

 what I have ascertained from the various Swedish and Russian 



