HYBRIDS BETWEEN RED GROU&E AND PTARMIGAN. 47 



Buckley, and exhibited a few years ago to the Zoological Society (P. Z. S. 

 1882, p. 112), showed this in a way that wholly surpassed my expectations, 

 though I believe that it was at my instigation that he began his collections ; 

 for T, with little or no experience of the fact, had surmised that a good deal 

 of variability would be found. On the other hand, it is an equally curious 

 fact that an extensive series of specimens obtained in Ireland by Mr. A. G. 

 More showed scarcely any variation — all presented the same ' snuff-coloured' 

 appearance which in Scotland is associated in gamekeepers' minds with 

 * grouse-disease,' and not one had the brilliant and varied hues of the 

 Sutherland birds." 



Now Prof. Newton is a high authority, and I should scarcely 

 have felt justified in even discussing the claim of his specimen to 

 be the veritable " Simon Pure" if he had not himself, as it were, 

 expressly admitted that it was open to discussion. 



The only points I can urge against hybridism and in favour of 

 albinism in this case, are : — lstly. That the bird, as usual, seems 

 to have been the only one of the covey that showed unusual 

 variation, which, though perhaps not conclusive, is certainly very 

 suggestive. 2ndly. The variations of Grouse, red, grey, slaty, ash, 

 black, and white, are endless, and a combination of colours 

 apparently very similar to those of the Kintradwell bird is 

 already on record in Montagu's ' Ornithological Dictionary,' 

 where, in the Supplement to his article on " Bed Grouse," he 

 says, " A mottled brown and white variety very much resembling 

 the summer plumage of the Ptarmigan was shot in Lancashire 

 in the month of August" (Lord Stanley). No doubt, if this 

 specimen resembling a Ptarmigan had been shot in a locality 

 frequented by the latter species, it would have been characterised 

 as a hybrid. 3rdly. When even alleged examples of this cross 

 are so excessively rare that none are recorded by ornithological 

 writers, one naturally hesitates to accept a solitary specimen the 

 verification of which rests mainly on so unsatisfactory a proof as 

 colour. It must not be forgotten, moreover, that the ranges 

 of various species, or so-called species, of Ptarmigan, such as 

 L. albus, L. mutus, L. rupestris, &c, overlap one another else- 

 where, especially in Norway and Sweden, whence come most of 

 our records of Grouse hybrids, and that nevertheless we have 

 not, so far as I am aware, a single record from that country, 

 or elsewhere, of a cross, nor I think even an alleged cross, 



