Birds. 



6265 



prouse. The eggs I have seen of the willow grouse are also quite different from 

 those of our common l)ir(l. — Frederick Bond; 24, Cavendish Road, October 11, 

 1858. 



The Red and Willow Grouse. — The question mooted by Mr. Norman regarding the 

 identity of these two (so-called) species is undoubtedly very interesting, and I trust the 

 subject will receive the attention it deserves, and be thoroughly worked out by those 

 who have had the fullest opportunities of making the necessary comparison. I have 

 no wish or intention of putting forward my own opinion on the matter, nor will 

 I venture to express my crude thoughts on a subject, with the positive facts of which 

 I can speak with so little accuracy ; but perhaps I may be permitted to state one 

 particular, which came under my notice in the year 1850, when I shot the willow 

 grouse in Norway in considerable numbers, and which, in fact, for a certain period 

 formed the principal item in our daily bill of fare ; for it struck me at the time 

 as something remarkable that whereas all the old birds which passed through 

 my hands had white wings, the young and the half-growu birds as invariably had their 

 wing-feathers coloured: moreover, I now possess, amongst the many skins of these 

 birds which I brought home to England, several immature specimens of every age 

 and size, from the chick lately emerged from the shell, which I caught with my hands 

 among the rocks on the Fjeld, up to the full-grown adult; and I have now before me 

 a case of these birds, old and young, the latter of which, up to the point when they 

 are about three-parts grown, show no white whatever in their wings, the quill-feathers 

 being invariably coloured, whereas the older birds, as well as the adult, have invariably 

 white wings. This fact I recollect pointing out to my friend Mr. Alfred Newton, in 

 1852, since which time that gentleman has made his own observations on the same 

 point in Norway and Lapland ; and if he could be prevailed on to state the result of 

 his experience on the point, I know of no one more entitled to be listened to with atten- 

 tion, or more likely to arrive at an accurate conclusion on the point in debate. As 

 regards the size of their respective beaks, I have nothing to offer beyond my impres- 

 sion that the beak of the willow grouse is not larger or stronger than that of the red 

 grouse, though here T speak with considerable hesitation, not having a specimen of 

 the red grouse at hand with which to compare my Norwegian birds. Bui again, in 

 discussions of this kind, regarding the identity of supposed species, one very tangible 

 point is the comparison of a sufficient series of their respective eggs, as suggested by 

 Mr. Norman in his former paper (Zool. 6209), and surely this must be a matter of no 

 difficulty, when we consider the numerical abundance of both birds; I regret that I did 

 not bring home from Norway specimens of the egg of the willow grouse, but I doubt 

 not many others must have done so, and I trust that some one who has the opportunity 

 will communicate this strong argument for or against the verdict of identity ; for I 

 conceive that in a dispute of personal identity (notoriously a subject which, above all 

 others, puzzles judges and juries and the whole bar), whereas on the one side a perfect 

 similarity of eggs would be a great link in the chain of evidence lor the identity of the 

 supposed species, on the other hand an uniform dissimilarity of eggs would at once 

 prove an insurmountable barrier against such identity. I therefore repeat that I trust 

 this comparison will be instituted, and the result made known, while the question is 

 pending; and I earnestly hope that the whole very interesting inquiry will not be 

 suffered to drop till it has been thoroughly invcKiigatcd, and the advocates for both 

 sides fully heard. — Alfred Charles Smith; Yaleshury Reclorrj^ JVillSj October 12, 

 1858. 



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