1886.] MR. R. COLLETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. 227 



In giving the following account of the "Rype-Orre" I have had 

 an opportunity of examining, besides the Norwegian specimens, the 

 four specimens whicli at present (March 1886) are preserved in the 

 Museum at Upsala, and which, by the kindness of Prof. TuUberg 

 and Ur. Kolthoff, have been forwarded to me for examination. Of 

 these specimens one is a male, namely Thunherg's individual of 1808 

 (see above), the other three are females. 



Besides these I have examined a fine male specimen in winter 

 dress, captured in Wermeland (Sweden) in the middle of January 

 1886, which I found myself in the game-market at Christiania in 

 February last. 



Biagnosis and Configuration. 



Tail slightly forked ; number of rectrices 18 ; toes semiclothed, the 

 outermost joints bare ; claws long and broad ; bill stout ; eyebrows 

 covered with warts, and ]jectinated above. 



Colour of male in winter dress : white underneath, with black 

 feathers on the breast and flanks ; blackish above, with whitish 

 edges on all tlie feathers. A white band through the eye, and a 

 blackish beneath it. Tail-feathers black, tipped with white. 



The female in winter dress more or less whitish underneath ; the 

 back, breast, and flanks (sometimes the entire lower surface) trans- 

 versely banded with reddish brown and black, all the feathers with 

 whitish edges. Tail l)lack, faintly speckled with brown and 

 whitish. 



Bill rather like that oiTetrao tetrix, strongly built, but the culmen 

 is not so plainly ridged as in that species ; its size in the male is 

 nearly double of that of Lagopus albus. The side branch of the 

 mandible strongly developed. 



Etjebroios covered with numerous small red warts, and with a fine- 

 toothed ridge above. The height of the eyebrows is about half the 

 diameter of the eye ; the comb in winter specimens is not very 

 high. 



Claws shaped like those of Lagopus, long and broad, and very 

 slightly oblique, the inner edge being a trifle broader than the 

 outer. They are less curved than in T. tetrix, and their colour is not 

 so dark as in that species. 



Toes semiclothed with hair-like feathers, densely in winter ; the 

 innermost joint entirely feathered, the middle one naked above, but 

 clothed on the sides, the outermost quite bare. The bare portions 

 covered with horny rings, on the sides with one or two series of 

 rounded scales ; under these there is a toothed comb (as in Tetrcio, 

 unlike Lagopus). 



Hind toe short, as in Lagopus (proportionally much longer in 

 Tetrao). 



Tail slightly forked, the outermost feathers very slightly bent 

 outwards at the end, and (in the male) 12 to 24 miilim. longer than 

 the central ones. Its length is proportionally longer than in T. tetrix, 

 and more like that of Lagopus. 



Under tail-coverts slightly shorter than the central rectrices (or 



