233 



ii 



apply it in analogous cases. The easiest way out of the difficulty would seem to be a simple 

 compound of the names of both parents, the name of the mother being subordinated to that of 

 the father. Thus we get the designation Tetrao urogallo-tetrix. 



"Of this hybrid, a considerable number of individuals are annually procured from various 

 parts of the country, male examples being every winter found in Christiania among game brought 

 from the interior wooded districts of the south. Most of them come from Gudbrandsdal and 

 Osterdal and the southern portions of Trondhjem Stift, and from Thelemarken, in Christiansand 

 Stift. In several of these localities the hybrid origin of the bird is well known to the inhabitants. 

 Along the west coast it can only be produced in the most inland tracts (T. urogallus is not widely 

 distributed here). The most northerly point at which it has been found, or indeed can occur, is 

 the Balsfjord, near Tromso (69° 20'), this locality being the extreme range of one of the parents 

 (Tetrao tetrix). 



" Of the individuals hitherto examined from Norway one only was a female ; this bird 

 (wing 255 millimetres, tail 113, tarsus 42, middle toe 414-13 millimetres) is preserved in the 

 University Museum ; the others were all males in winter plumage. I once found a young male 

 not fully coloured in the game-market of Christiania, Oct. 3rd, 1870. 



" The ' Eakkelhane ' would appear to consort in preference with black game ; and most 

 individuals, of which any particulars are known, have been killed among birds of that species. 

 It has been recorded of one individual (Odalen, in April 1871) that it was shot in its ' spel,' in a 

 breeding-haunt of Capercaillie." 



On the one Plate are figured the adult male in the foreground, and in the background the 

 adult female, and on the second Plate the barren female and the male " Rackelhane " or hybrid, 

 these being the specimens described, all being in my collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens :•— 



E Mm. H. E. Dresser. 



a, 6 ad. Winter plumage, St.-Petersburg market (Dock) . b, <$ ad. Norway (Backhouse) . c, d, e, $ ad. St.- 

 Petersburg market; /, g, h, $ steril. St.-Petersburg market (Dode). i, 2 steril. Christiania, November 

 14th, 1871 (R. Collett). k,puUus. Sweden (Wheelwright). 



3s 



