dark bill, and the absence of the large white spot of the male
bird on the tail, which was finely spotted with greyish-red.*
That this sterility is not always a consequence of old age,
is proved by the fact that many of these females are young
birds; but in all those dissected by Nilsson the ovarium was
more or less diseased; and the older the female, the closer
was the resemblance she'bore to the male, A figure of a
barren female, of this description is given below from Nilsson.
Like* many gallinaceous birds, the Capercaillie indaehfine-
ment will breed' with.,ether- species? and-the first * result .of
the earliest importation to Braemar was ’the production’of a
hybrid between the Sole .surviving male and a common barndoor
Hen. -Jn* 'Mr. Llpyd^s-*1- Game Birds/ already cited,
* Ornithology"oîiNortbern Norway, pi 48.
is an amusing account of a male Capercaillie'fwhich, having
paired successfully with a Turkey-hen, deserted her for a
white Goose, but was so scared by his reception that he never
made any further advances to the Turkey or to any other
hen bird. Allusion has already been made to the wild
hybrid between the Capercaillie and the Black Grouse:
a cross which is not uncommon in all countries inhabited
by the two species, and is known in Scandinavia as the
Rakkelhane or Rakkdfogel. This hybrid is generally, and
some say invariably, produced between the female Capercaillie
and the Black-cock, and Mr, Harvie-Brown considers
that it probably results from the fact that the females
of the Capercaillie start on their wanderings before t^e
males, and, in the absence of their natural partners, mate
with the handsome and amorous Black-cocks whose territory
they have invaded. The male Capercaillies soon
follow the females, so this hybridism rarely attains to serious
proportions. As regards the paternity, however, the late
M. Falk, whose arguments are given at considerable length
in Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds,’ held that many of these
hybrids were the offspring of the females of the Black
Grouse, and the younger male Capercaillies'which had been
debarred by the older and stronger birds from' uniting with
females, of their own species.' Under the former assumption,
which has. been maintained by-Nilsson, Collett, and
others* the name of Tetrao t u^ogallo^tetTix has been given
as expressive of the origin of this hybrid,, and as ^ ‘.substitute
for the inapplicable name T. ~ urogallmd$s. From
the erroneous belief that • it was a distinct species,, it. had
already been called T. medius, T. . &c.
The male of this hybrid ; in a handsome black-billed bird,
sometimes nearly as large as a young Capercaillie cock, and
from six to seven pounds in weight; the. shining feathers on.
the neck are qf a rich Orleans-plum, colour, and the outer’
feathers of the tail are longer! than the, others; giving' it., a
forked appearance,, although never, to anything like the. same
extent as in the Black-cock, The figure of'this bird on. the
next page is taken from a coloured illustration to Nilsson’s!;
I vql. m. , i . | •. 1