1905.] HYBRIDS AMONG NORWEGIAN BIRDS. 7 



In common with his father (the blackcock), the Rakkel- 

 hane possesses a white wing-spot, an almost unspotted black 

 abdomen, the purplish colour of the patch on the breast, and 

 the colour of the bill. 



The female (Rakkelhøne) has almost the colour of the 

 grey-hen (L. tetrix, fem.), but resembles the mother (T. urogal- 

 his, fem.) in having no white spot on the wing, (or one only very 

 slightly developed), and in the unspotted white of the margin of 

 the tail-feathers; in certain specimens also, the patch on the 

 breast is inclined to be of a uniform red brown, like that of 

 the mother. 



The colour of the female, hov/ever, varies somewhat; the 

 tone may sometimes be rather dark (the black bars and 

 margin of the feathers broad). The size may also vary; there 

 are specimens in the Christiania Museum that are smaller than 

 a normal L. tetrix, fem. 



The Typical Rakkel-bird. All the Rakkel-birds (or hybrids 

 between the two above-named species) hitherto found in Norway, 

 have been so similar in their plastic and colour characters, that 

 they must all be assumed to have resulted from the same cross- 

 ing (L. tetrix being the father), The patch on the breast, for 

 instance, and the head, in all the males I have examined, have 

 the same purple metallic colour, with a faint tinge of green. No 

 other shades of colour have occurred 1 . 



A crossing in the opposite direction is unknown in Norway, 

 nor has there as yet been found any specimen that might be 



1 A male specimen in the Christiania Museum, caught in Finland in Decem- 

 ber, 1893, is of another character. The purple tinge is almost entirely 

 absent, and instead of it the patch on the breast has a decidedly 

 greenish bronze lustre. The whole of the upper surface, moreover, has 

 fewer traces of the fine mottling that is more or less pronounced in 

 the Norwegian specimens. This colouring may, however, have its origin 

 in slight differences in the colours of the Eastern race of the parents, 

 and not in another sort of crossing. 



