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10 



In my collection I have a series of eggs of the Capercaillie, chiefly obtained by myself near 

 Uleaborg, in Finland, which in size vary from 2^g- by lf^ to 2\% by If § inch, and in colour 

 from pale dull yellow, spotted and blotched with yellowish rufous spots of large and small size, 

 distributed all over the surface of the egg, to rufous yellow, so closely spotted with pale yellowish 

 red spots as almost to give the egg the appearance of being plain, unspotted, dark clay-colour. 



When hatched, Mr. Collett informs me, the young birds are at first fed almost exclusively 

 on small soft-bodied insects ; but they soon leam to feed themselves, and pick up small seeds and 

 other vegetable matter. He examined the stomach of a young male of about the size of a 

 common fowl, which was shot near Christiania on the 22nd of June, 1868, and found it to 

 contain tops of Car ex pilulifera and pallescens, small bits of Pteris aquilina, nymphse of different 

 species of Myrmica, and a few Hymenoptera. In the winter season the stomachs of the old birds 

 have generally been found to contain coarse gravel, leaves, and berries of Vaccinium vitis-idcea, 

 and fir-foliage, the latter often in great quantities ; and sometimes the stomach contains nothing 

 but the soft buds of Pinus and Abies. 



Like the black game and Ptarmigan, the Capercaillie has a tendency to hybridize ; and it 

 has been recorded to have paired with the common Turkey. The so-called " Rackelfogel " or 

 " Eakkelhane " is the best-known of the hybrids, and is by no means uncommon. Respecting 

 this bird Mr. R. Collett writes that " Nilsson having given such conclusive evidence of the hybrid 

 origin of this bird (called in the vernacular ' Rakkelhane') that the question was regarded by 

 naturalists as settled, he proposed Tetrao urogalloides (or urogallides) as an appropriate name 

 for this form. At the same time he showed from his own observations, and those of intelligent 

 sportsmen, that this hybrid is bred between the Blackcock and the female Capercaillie (Tetrao 

 tetrix <S and T. urogallus 2) — whether the connexion arises from the Blackcock repairing to 

 the breeding-haunts of the Capercaillie, or rather (which perhaps is more frequently the case) 

 from the female Capercaillie, prompted by a morbid tendency to mesalliance (so often the result 

 of inordinate sexual desire), consorting with black game, and pairing with the handsome and 

 gallant male of that species. 



"True, this hybrid has been supposed by some to be the result of the male Capercaillie 

 mating with the Greyhen (Tetrao urogallus <S-\- tetrix 2); but the supposition has invariably 

 been scouted as improbable, and, indeed, no such form of hybrid has been hitherto observed. 



" Nilsson's designation (Tetrao urogalloides) has been accepted by all Scandinavian naturalists, 

 and indeed by most others that do not hold the belief that this hybrid forms a distinct species. 

 The name, however, is not strictly applicable, partly because the ' Rakkelhane ' is a compound, 

 and not a simple species, and should therefore, as such, have a compound and not a simple 

 name — and partly because, as Sundevall has shown, the termination ides is calculated to impart 

 a wrong notion concerning the male parent, to which, in grammatical correctness, it should refer. 



" Probably it was thought unnecessary to inquire further into a matter comparatively so 

 unimportant. But seeing that this form occurs in a wild, and only in a wild state, it would 

 be well to find an appropriate name whereby to give it a place in the system. In the year 

 1869 Sundevall proposed a change in that respect, and suggested the name of Tetrao urogallo- 

 tetricides, which might be regarded as satisfactory ; the termination ides, however, could surely 

 be dropped, partly because it is superfluous, and partly because it would prove impossible to 



