lxxxii PROLEGOMENA 



shows a preponderance of Hoodie blood, was shot in Wastwater. 1 

 Reports of hybrids between the Common and Eed-legged 

 Partridges reached me from the north of Cumberland, but were 

 not authenticated by the necessary production of at least one 

 specimen of the supposed cross. A male hybrid between the 

 Red and Black Grouse has already been recorded from Cumber- 

 land. 2 A similar bird was reported to me as having been killed 

 on the Crossfell range in 1887, but it is said to have been too 

 hard shot for preservation. 3 The younger Kirkby of Ulverston 

 received for preservation a local example of the hybrid between 

 the Pheasant and Black Grouse in 1887. 



No instances of hybridisation among any species of Wild- 

 fowl have as yet come to light in Lakeland as regards free 

 birds. It may be opportune, however, to remark that two 

 Canada Ganders, kept at Moorthwaite, paired with domestic 

 Geese in the spring of 1889. The eggs resulting from this 

 cross proved fertile, but the hybrid offspring, while still small, 

 were killed by rats. 



i Birds of Cumberland, p. 58. 



2 lb. tit., p. 124. 



3 If Lakeland sportsmen would take the trouble to look out for hybrid 

 Grouse, it is quite possible that this cross might prove to be less exces- 

 sively rare than has hitherto been conjectured. 



