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Show 1886.] MR. R. COLLETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. 227 In giving the following account of the " Rype-Orre" I have had an opportunity of examining, besides the Norwegian specimens, the four specimens which at present (March 1886) are preserved in the Museum at Upsala, and which, by the kindness of Prof. Tullberg and Dr. Kolthoff, have been forwarded to m e for examination. Of these specimens one is a male, namely Thunberg's individual of 1808 (see above), the other three are females. Besides these I have examined a fine male specimen in winter dress, captured in Wermeland (Sweden) in the middle of January 1886, which I found myself in the game-market at Christiania in February last. Diagnosis and Configuration. Tail slightly forked ; number of rectrices 18 ; toes semiclothed, the outermost joints bare ; claws long and broad ; bill stout ; eyebrows covered with warts, and pectinated above. Colour of male in winter dress : white underneath, with black feathers on the breast and flanks; blackish above, with whitish edges on all the feathers. A white band through the eye, and a blackish beneath it. Tail-feathers black, tipped with white. The female in winter dress more or less whitish underneath ; the back, breast, and flanks (sometimes the entire lower surface) transversely banded with reddish brown and black, all the feathers with whitish edges. Tail black, faintly speckled with brown and whitish. Bill rather like that of Tetrao tetrix, strongly built, but the culmen is not so plainly ridged as in that species ; its size in the male is nearly double of that of Lagopus albus. Tbe side branch of the mandible strongly developed. Eyebrows covered with numerous small red warts, and with a fine-toothed ridge above. The height of the eyebrows is about half the diameter of the eye ; the comb in winter specimens is not very high. Claws shaped like those of Lagopus, long and broad, and very slightly oblique, the inner edge being a trifle broader than the outer. They are less curved than in T. tetrix, and their colour is not so dark as in that species. Toes semiclothed with hair-like feathers, densely in winter ; the innermost joint entirely feathered, the middle one naked above, but clothed on the sides, the outermost quite bare. The bare portions covered with horny rings, on the sides with one or two series of rounded scales ; under these there is a toothed comb (as in Tetrao, unlike Lagopus). Hind toe short, as in Lagopus (proportionally much longer in Tetrao). Tail slightly forked, the outermost feathers very slightly bent outwards at the end, and (in the male) 12 to 24 millim. longer than the central ones. Its length is proportionally longer than in T. tetrix, and more like that of Lagopus. Under tail-coverts slightly shorter than the central rectrices (or |
