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CAPERCAILZIE. 
correct, we see no reason why the occasional cross- 
ing should not have taken place in this country, 
as well as in Norway or Sweden. The continental 
ornithologists generally, we believe, adopt the 
theory of hybridity, and it has been assented to, 
or at least not contradicted, by those of this 
country. One residing at a distance from their 
haunts cannot be expected to go narrowly into the 
question, and the following remarks are made 
with the view of directing the attention of persons 
who have the opportunity, to a fact which we 
do not consider as yet satisfactorily proved. The 
bird in the dress of T. medius, appears to be far too 
common for a hybrid ; since the introduction of 
game from Northern Europe, it is to be procured 
almost every spring in the poultry shops of some 
of the larger towns, and Mr. Yarrell speaks to as 
many as seven specimens, during ten years, in the 
shops of one poulterer in London. But among all 
the specimens we have examined, and in those of 
our own collection, there was, and is, no difference 
whatever in the plumage of the specimens, they 
are exactly similar ; now, in hybrids, we should 
expect, and do find, not two species similar. The 
intermediate form of the bird is just that which 
we would look for to intervene between the Caper- 
cailzie, or the round tailed grouse of America, and 
the extreme of development seen in the black cock. 
On the other side, we have an intermediate form 
between them and the long acuminated tail of 
the cock of the plains. The scarcity of the 
