3710 Birds. 



balloon was carried along.'' — From Lieut. Sherard Osbom's * Stray Leaves from an 

 Arctic Journal,' p. 174. 



Hybrid Grouse. — I have lately acquired a specimen of grouse having an appear- 

 ance of hybridism from two of the finest species of game birds in the country. It 

 came, with other game, to Mr. Muirhead, game-dealer, Manchester, from the moors 

 near the Marquis of Breadalbane's estate, Perthshire, a locality enumerated by the 

 late Professor Macgillivray as one of the few places where the capercailzie may yet 

 be found in a semi-naturalized state. The specimen possesses many characteristics 

 which confirm its parental descent from a male of the black grouse (Tetrao Tetrix) 

 and a female of the capercailzie (T. Urogallus), although in its general appearance it 

 would be looked upon as a variety of the black cock, mottled over with white and 

 brown ; yet, upon a closer examination, the superior strength of its feet, and large 

 black bill, together with the peculiar markings of the plumage, give sufficient proofs 

 of its consanguinity to the capercailzie. The plumage, with the exception of the tail, 

 has none of the glossy blue-black hue of the ordinary specimens of the black cock ; the 

 head, neck, and breast are mottled and barred with reddish brown and black ; the 

 throat is barred with black and white ; the back is dull black and brown, with white, 

 irregularly-shaped marks ; the belly, and as far as the vent, is dull black, with spots 

 of white tipping the feathers down the centre, just as they are found on the belly of 

 the male capercailzie ; the wings are brown and dull black, with numerous small bars 

 and spots of white, but without the white lower wing-coverts of the black cock; a tuft 

 of white feathers at the shoulders, under the wings freckled with brown and black ; 

 the flanks over the thighs, vent, and under tail-coverts barred with dull black and 

 white, as in the capercailzie ; the tail is not fully developed, and in its present state 

 is an anomalous mixture of the differently-shaped tails of its parents ; the feathers are 

 glossy black, four in the centre and the two outer ones two inches and a half longer 

 than the others, the centre ones rounded and shaped more like the tail of the caper- 

 cailzie than those of the black cock, but the two outer feathers, as well as two others 

 only half grown, have a tendency to curve outwards, just as the four outward tail-fea- 

 thers do in the black cock ; the feathers on the legs are freckled with black and white ; 

 the legs are strong, and the claws have larger pectinations than in the ordinary black 

 game ; the bill is strong and black ; and in size the bird altogether exceeds the black 

 game, but yet is not so large as the female capercailzie. If it had been fortunate 

 enough to have escaped the gun till the month of February next, it would have been 

 a finer and a more richly-marked bird. — John Plant ; Salford Royal Museum, Octo- 

 ber 5, 1852. 



Occurrence of the Pratincole (Glareola torquata) in Devonshire. — On the 7th of 

 September, 1851, my friend W. W. Buller, Esq., saw two collared pratincoles on the 

 Warren, a large sand-bank at the mouth of the river Exe, South Devon. They 

 appeared very tame, occasionally alighting on the sand, on which their movements 

 very much resembled those of the ring dotterel. Their manner of flight was very 

 much like that of the swallow. — T. L. Powys ; Lilford Hall, Northants, October 9, 

 1852. 



" The Biter bit. — As Mr. Wm. Mills was going over his farm '' (in Upper Beed- 

 ing, Sussex), " some few days since, he observed something white in one of the ditch- 

 es, which appeared at first sight to be the clothes of a female, but on approaching it 

 he found it to be a large heron, standing on its feet with its wings projecting and the 

 head underwater. Wondering what could fix it in such a curious position, he, by the 



