ORDER GALLlNiE. 249 



many tribes of cossacks, catch them in great numbers in 

 traps and snares, and thus supply the markets of St Peters- 

 burgh during the winter. 



The black-grous is common in all the northern parts of 

 Great Britain, particularly in Scotland and Wales ; they are 

 found in Cumberland, and are numerous enough in York_ 

 shire and Staffordshire. In the north of Europe, they exist as 

 far as Lapland ; and in the north of Asia, throughout Siberia. 

 They are also to be found, but not very numerously, in the 

 north of France, on the high mountains of Switzerland, and 

 the Tyrol. 



The Hybrid Grous, as its name announces, has been sup- 

 posed to be a spurious production between the two last men- 

 tioned species. The opinion that a spurious breed could arise 

 from two distinct species in the wild state, is one that 

 deserves very minute investigation before it can be received ; 

 more especially the opinion that such a breed could become 

 prolific, and multiply to any great extent ; such a notion is 

 quite in contradiction to the result of our observations on the 

 laws of Nature, who has sagely provided an innate repugnance 

 in all species to such illegitimate alliances, and one that can 

 be overcome only by the perversion of instinct which is pro- 

 duced by the superintendence of man. 



But it does not appear that facts by any means counte- 

 nance such a supposition. In the northern countries the 

 woods are abundantly peopled by the two species of the wood 

 and black grous. The want, therefore, of individuals in either, 

 cannot oblige the one to intermix with the other. In the 

 more central regions of Europe, where these species are less 

 abundant, no example of the hybrid is to be found. We deem 

 these facts sufficient against the notion of this unnatural 

 alliance. To this we may add, that besides external differ- 

 ences, the conformation of the trachea and larynx is not 



