44 ' TETRAONID^E. 



undulated with black and brownish-yellow, and transversely barred 

 with black, the bars on the outer feathers occupying as much space as 

 the mottled plumage, their tips black for about 1^ inches ; this colour 

 gradually lessens towards the central feathers, the five longest being 

 mottled at their extremities. These present a singular reverse to the 

 longest tail-feathers of the pheasant, in which the bars become broader 

 as they approach the end ; in this bird they altogether disappear there. 

 Some of the feathers on the wing-coverts have the shaft cream-coloured, 

 with the centre black, ending in a point towards the tip, as in the 

 pheasant ; but the cream-coloured band surrounding it in that bird is 

 wanting, and the extremity of the feather is mottled. The lower part 

 of the back and rump has a blending in about equal quantity of black 

 and mottled plumage, each feather terminating in claret colour. The 

 only white in the plumage is a spot on the shoulders similar to that 

 exhibited by both sexes of the black grouse, and some markings of that 

 colour on the vent feathers. Under tail-coverts black, mottled with 

 rich reddish-brown at their tips. Bill intermediate between the 

 greenish-horny colour of the pheasant and the black of the Tetrao 

 tetrix. Tarsi and toes also intermediate. 



" Mr. Sabine and Mr. Eyton describe their hybrid specimens as bred 

 between the cock-pheasant and grey-hen. But that the produce is as 

 likely to occur from the opposite sexes of those species, is indicated 

 by the following circumstance. A black-cock, a few years ago in 

 the possession of my friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., of Belfast, having 

 been kept along with a cock and two hen pheasants, beat and drove 

 away the cock whenever he approached the hens in spring ; and as a 

 brood of pheasants was wanted, had to be removed to another enclo- 

 sure. The black-cock at the same time displayed towards these hen 

 pheasants all the attitudes by which, in a wild state, the attention of 

 the females of his own species is attracted. The naked scarlet skin 

 above each eye was so protruded and prominent as to give the head 

 somewhat of a crested appearance, and the finely arched tail was thrown 

 up like that of the turkey-cock when strutting about in his pride. The 

 love-call, so loud as to be hearcUit a great distance, was almost inces- 

 santly uttered. He was a bird of the previous year, taken in autumn 

 by John Sinclaire, Esq., on his shooting-grounds in Ayrshire, after 

 having been ' put in' by one of his trained peregrine falcons. He 

 lived in confinement for nearly two years.'' 



