235 



Sterile specimens of this species are often met with, and such 

 sometimes attain very nearly the dress of the young male. 



Tet ra o u rogall o-tctrix. 

 („ Rakkel 'hane", hybrid between Tetrao tetrix i and urogallus ?). 



Nilsson having given such conclusive evidence of the hybrid 

 origin of this bird (called in the vernacular „Rakkelhane u ) that 

 the question was regarded by naturalists as settled, 1 he proposed 

 Tetrao ur og all o id es (or urogallides) as an appropriate name 

 for this form. At the same time he showed from his own ob- 

 servations and those of intelligent sportsmen, that this hybrid is 

 bred from between the black cock and the female capercaillie (Tetrao 

 tetrix £ -f- urogallus $), whether the connexion arises from the black 

 cock repairing to the breeding-haunts of the capercaillie, or rather 

 (which perhaps is more frequently the case) from the female ca- 

 percaillie, prompted by a morbid tendency to mesalliance — so often 

 the result of inordinate sexual desire — consorting with black game 

 and pairing with the handsome and gallant male of that species. 

 True, this hybrid has been supposed by some to be the result of 

 the male capercaillie mating with the grey hen (Tetrao urogallus $ 

 + tetrix but the supposition has invariably been scouted as 

 improbable, and indeed no such form of hybrid has been hitherto 

 observed. 2 



Nilsson's designation Tetrao urogailoides has been accepted 

 by all Scandinavian naturalists, and indeed by most others that do 

 not hold to the belief, that this hybrid forms a distinct species. The 



1 This opinion was first entertained so far back as the middle of the last century 

 (Reutenskold, „Kgl. Vet. Akad. Handl." 1744). 



2 In 1868, Mr. Victor Fatio (Bull. Soc. Vaud. Vol. IX, no. 58, p. 594) descri- 

 bed a specimen, preserved in the museum of Lausanne, which he calls „ Tetrao 

 medius inverse''''. Respecting this example, he presumes „non settlement que le 

 sujet de Lausanne est un métis, mais encore que e'est le Tet. urogallus qui est son pére". 

 This specimen (its total length is stated to be 655 mm ), is, however. hardly a 

 hybrid between T. urogallus and tetrix, for „sa queue au lieu d'étre en lyre, est 

 plutot en éventail" ; to judge from the subjoined description of its coloration etc, 

 it would seem to represent but one of the numerous garbs of sterile females 

 of T. urogallus. 



