580 NOTES ON THE 
Hungary, and during the last few years I have not seen more 
than four or five of these birds that have been shot in Swit- 
zerland or our Alpine districts. In Bohemia Hybrid Grouse 
have recently been increasing in number—a fact that cannot 
be attributed to closer preservation of the ground, as the 
shooting of Capercaillies has for many years been pursued 
with the same keenness, and cocks which are so very aber- 
rant both in appearance and call would have been instantly 
detected by so many excellent sportsmen. 
These remarks on the distribution of the Hybrid Grouse 
suggest the theory that it is a distinct species belonging to 
Asia and the north-east of Europe, which is now extending 
its range westwards, the study of animal-geography teaching 
us that this is characteristic of many other Asiatic species, 
and especially of those belonging to the Grouse tribe. 
The idea that Hybrid Cocks only occur where Capercaillie 
are common and Blackgame are but rare visitors, or the re- 
verse, is a mere illusion, and too much stress is also laid on 
the variations in plumage among the individual cocks. 
One speaks of the Hybrid Grouse as being of the Caper- 
caillie or Blackgame type ; but a good many specimens have 
already passed through my hands, some in the flesh, more in 
skins, and I am bound to say that I never found any essential 
differences between them, either in size or plumage, greater 
than those due to age, and which occur among all the other 
species of Wood-Grouse. The notes, too, of this bird when 
drumming are always the same, and quite peculiar to it, 
having no resemblance to those either of the Capercaillie or 
the Blackcock. . 
In reply to all this naturalists adduce other and, I must 
confess, more weighty arguments for considering it to be a 
cross. The manner, for instance, in which its drumming is 
conducted differs among various individuals. Some Hybrid 
Cocks frequent the dense forests, where they utter their 
