44 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



summer or autumn; that is, it would have been slaty or ash- 

 grey, largely vermiculated, and here and there blotched with 

 black instead of white, which is the winter dress of the Ptarmigan ; 

 whilst the tail, instead of being " white shading off to a pale slate- 

 colour at the tip," would have been blackish, with the tips more 

 or less white ; that is, almost exactly the reverse, if it is to be 

 taken as evidence of interbreeding. This error of expecting a 

 hybrid in early autumn plumage to approximate to the winter 

 plumage of the Ptarmigan, is noticeable in most of the descrip- 

 tions I have read of so-called hybrids, whereas an ordinary white 

 variety might be expected to show white or absence of colour 

 almost anywhere, irrespective of the seasonal dress or sex of its 

 parents. 



I may add that although in this and most other similar cases 

 the fact that the bird was the only one of the covey so marked, 

 if it does not make it certain that a cock Ptarmigan had not 

 previously paired with a hen Grouse, it at least makes it highly 

 improbable. 



The fifth and sixth instances are the most probable of any 

 I have come across, and I give the reference to these verbatim, 

 the sixth being contained in the editorial note : — 



" Hybrid Ptarmigan and Red Grouse. — With reference to F. J. M.'s 

 note in your last issue [the third on my list] on a curious variety of the 

 Red Grouse, I may mention that in 1873 there was a covey of five birds 

 on Ben Larven which were believed by the keepers to be hybrids between 

 Red Grouse and Ptarmigan. Mr. Chalmers, who had rented the moor for 

 some years, succeeded in shooting a brace in October, and submitted them 

 to several ornithologists in Edinburgh, who all pronounced that the keepers 

 were right. Ben Larven is within a few miles of Garth. [In 1878 

 a hybrid between Red Grouse and Ptarmigan was exhibited by Professor 

 Newton at a meeting of the Zoological Society. It had been shot on the 

 1st Sept. in that year at Kintradwell, in Sutherland, and was forwarded to 

 him by Capt. Houston, of Kintradwell. — Ed.]." 



Now the fact that the whole covey in this instance seems to 

 have been peculiarly coloured, and that the two birds shot were 

 submitted for examination to persons said to be ornithologists, 

 undoubtedly makes it look like a genuine instance of hybridism, 

 as I believe a whole brood of albinos must be extremely rare, if 

 it ever occurs; but unfortunately, in the absence of any descrip- 

 tion of the birds shot, or any names of those who favoured the 



