THE HYBRID GROUSE. 589 
tail without white terminal bars, and all the parts of the body 
larger and stronger. | 
“From this description it is evident that the male of the 
Middle Wood-Grouse closely resembles the Blackcock, so 
closely, indeed, that Gmelin (Syst. i. p. 748) calls it ‘ Tetrao 
tetriz, var. y.’ The most striking differences lie in its tail, 
which, compared with that of the Blackcock, looks as if it 
had been clipped, and in its size. 
“The young plumage of this Wood-Grouse is not yet 
known.” 
The detailed description of the female would be too long to 
quote in its entirety, but it contains certain passages which 
are interesting to us at the present moment, and which I 
must cite as briefly as possible. 
Brehm writes :—“ The discovery of the female of our Middle 
Wood-Grouse is not only of great importance for natural 
history in general, but also for the specific status of the bird 
itself; for although it has been known since the time of 
Brisson and Linnzeus, there has always been a great division 
of opinion as to its being a distinct species. In the ‘ Mus. 
Carls.’ of Sparrm. (fase. i. T. 15) there is a very good figure 
of the old male under the name of ‘ Tetrao hybridus; Hybrid 
Wood-Grouse.’ Brisson, in his ‘Orn.’ v. i. p. 191, sp. 2 A, 
calls it Tetrao minor punctatus; that is to say, the Small 
Spotted Capercaillie?! Gmelin, in Syst. i. p. 748, considers 
it to be a variety of the Blackcock, for he designates it as 
Tetrao tetriz, var. y. Bechstein alludes to it as the Hybrid 
Wood-Grouse (see his ‘Naturgeschichte Deutschl.’ 2 ed. 3 pt. 
p- 1835). Leisler, at the end of the second volume of his 
additions to Bechstein’s ‘Naturgesch. Deutschl.,’ was, as far 
as I know, the first to write of this Wood-Grouse as a distinct 
species, and to publish a very accurate figure of the male 
after its first moult. He is followed by Temminck, in his 
‘Naturgeschichte der Tauben und Hiibner,’ and in his 
