8 R. COLLETT. [No. 11. 



assumed to have resulted from the mating of the hybrids with 

 either of the parents, or with one another 1 . 



Distribution. The Rakkel-bird is produced armually in 

 various parts of the country, and apparently in no small number. 



Most of the birds are found in the inland forest regions of 

 the south-east, especially in Østerdalen and the country south of 

 Kongsvinger up to the interior of the Trondhjem Slift, and from 

 the large valleys westward to the boundaries of the Bergen Stift. 



Along the west coast, where T. urogallus is almost unknown, 

 they are only met with sporadically in the innermost valleys, 

 such as Ryfylke, Hardanger, and Lærdal. 



From Nordland also, only scattered individuals are met 

 with, but some of these are found quite out on the larger is- 

 lands (such as Alstenø). Several specimens were found in the 

 Saltdal, south of Bodø ; the most northerly regions in which they 

 are found are the Maalselvedal and the Bardodal, (inland from 

 Tromsø), or at about the northern limit of the distribution of 

 L. tetrix. 



By far the larger number of the specimens exposed for sale 

 or sent to the museums, come, however, from the two southern 

 dioceses, Christiania and Hamar; and here they seem to be 

 produced just as frequently in the lower districts (e.g. those 

 round the Christiania Fjord) as in the subalpine forest slopes. 

 At a single game-dealer's shop in Christiania, I have been able 

 annually, from October to March, to examine as many as a 



1 In 1889, in a paper entitled „Ueber einige settene Expl. von Rackel- 

 und Birkwild in Mus. Ferdin. zu Innsbruck" (Zeitschr. Ferdin. Tirol, 

 III Folge, 33 H„ P. 230. Innsbruck 1889), Dr. Meyer described a 

 female specimen, shot in 1889 in Hakedal in Norway, which, in the 

 opinion of that writer, was the result of the pairing of a Rakkelhane 

 with a normal female T. urogallus. He names this specimen „Rackel- 

 henne mit Auerhennentypus (Auerrackelhenne)". 



This specimen is described as larger than an ordinary Rakkelhøne 

 (length of wing 285 mm ), and with certain slight differences in colour; 

 but as the tail is stated to be of exactly the same shape and colour 

 as that of a normal female T. urogallus, and only somewhat shorter 

 (middle tail-feather 170 mm ), the hybrid parentage, assumed by Dr. Meyer, 

 must be deemed rather improbable. 



