FREAKS AND ODDITIES 63 



hen capercailzie and pheasants, but came upon no 

 more hybrids.' ' 



This singular bird was further examined by Mr. 

 W. Eagle Clarke, who pronounced it to resemble a 

 cock capercailzie in general appearance, but to possess 

 a pheasant's tail : ' The head is that of a cock caper- 

 cailzie, but the bill is rather weak, and the cheeks are 

 naked below the eye, as in the cock pheasant ; the 

 beard, however, is well developed. The tarsus is only 

 feathered on its upper part, the lower three-fourths or 

 more being scutellate, and bearing a nodule in the 

 place of the Phasianine spur. The toes are also 

 mainly those of the pheasant, for only the faintest 

 trace is to be found of the lateral horny processes so 

 characteristic of Teirao. The tail is decidedly cuneate 

 in form, but not so pronouncedly so as in the phea- 

 sant, and consists of eighteen feathers. In colour the 

 feathers of the crown and hind neck are green, with 

 yellowish-grey margins ; the sides of the face green, 

 with dull yellow patches ; feathers of the abdomen 

 and sides with two dull yellow bars and a broad ter- 

 minal margin of green, giving a blotched appearance, 

 the green largely predominating. The back and 

 scapulars resemble those of a cock capercailzie, but 

 the vermiculations on the feathers are coarser and of 

 ' Scottish Naturalist, third series, 1891, p. 38. 



