55 [Vol. xri. 



were marked with a coloration unlike that of either 

 of the parents. The rnmp-feathers were rounded in shape, 

 not long as in the Pheasant. There was a Pheasant-like 

 bare space round the eye, but much smaller in area than 

 in the male Pheasant. The beak was of a pronounced 

 Pheasant-type, but with no scaly operculum, the nostrils 

 being- feathered as in the Black Game. The legs were 

 feathered for about one-third the way down, but the 

 scaling below this resembled that of the Pheasant only 

 in so far as the outside of the lower third of the tarso- 

 metatarsus was concerned, the rest of the scales being 

 small and hexagonal in shape. The comb-like fringe along 

 the toes, so well developed in Black Game, was entirely 

 wanting in this bird. 



After some discussion, in which Mr. Walter Rothschild 

 and Mr. J. G. Millais took part, it was decided that this 

 bird must be regarded as a cross between a Black 

 Cock and a hen Pheasant. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant drew attention to the large size of 

 the specimen exhibited, and remarked that these hybrid 

 birds were apt to wander far from the place where they had 

 been bred. He mentioned instances of hybrids between 

 Black Game and Capercaillie killed in the northern part 

 of Aberdeenshire and in Inverness-shire. 



Mr. J. G. Millais exhibited a line mounted specimen of 

 a male hybrid between Black Game and Pheasant, which 

 had been killed at the Ross of Mull, N.B., in November, 

 1895, by Captain Murphy, and was now the property of 

 Miss Lees. Mr. Millais remarked that hybrids between these 

 two species were of rare occurrence, and that the present 

 example and that exhibited by Mr. Py craft were, he believed, 

 respectively the sixth and seventh specimens which had 

 occurred in the British Islands. These hybrids, as well 

 as hybrid Capercaillie and Black Game, were generally 

 found where one or other of the parents were vanishing 

 or extending their range. Females of the Capercailzie 

 had been known to go voluntarily to the Black Cock's 



