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Show 346 MR. DRESSKR ON THE BLACK AND HAZEL GROUSE. [Apr. 4, shot off; and I have seen several interesting hybrids between the Black Grouse and the Willow Grouse. Mr. Collett names an instance of a male Willow Grouse having been seen to pair with a barndoor Fowl; and I have heard of the Black Grouse crossing with the Red Grouse; but I have never seen a specimen of a hybrid between these two; and I may add that I can find no record in the works of the Scandinavian authors of a hybrid between the Hazel Grouse and the Black Grouse having hitherto been met with. The specimen exhibited belongs to John Flower, Esq., F.Z.S., who has intrusted it to me for examination and exhibition, and who gives me the following particulars respecting it:- " I bought this bird of W . Smithers, poulterer, near the Cannon- Street Railway Station, on March 16, 1876. It had passed through several hands before it came to Mr. Smithers; and all that I have as yet been able to learn of its past history is that it came from Norway. Some one who has had the bird seems to have been aware that it was something out of the common, as I found a piece of cotton wool had been placed in the oesophagus, no doubt to prevent the feathers being soiled by the escape of matter through the mouth ; and judging from its appearance, the wool had been there 6ome considerable time. " The weight of the bird, which was in very* fair condition, was a trifle over 1 lb. 9 oz. The weight of a grey hen, which I weighed for the purpose of comparison, I found to be 1 lb. 10|oz. " O n dissection the hybrid proved to be a male. The intestines and caeca were as nearly as possible exactly like those of the grey hen, except that the intestine of the hybrid (measured from the gizzard to the lower end of the caeca) was 3 inches shorter than in the grey hen, the length between these points being, for the grey hen 54 inches, for the hybrid 51 inches. The length of the caeca iu both was 24 inches. " The crop was empty; but the gizzard contained a quantity of small stones, most of them of white quartz, and a quantity of twigs and vegetable matter, including one bud of a birch catkin. 1 turned the contents of the gizzard out into a small basin of warm water; and these, when stirred, emitted rather a sweet aromatic smell, which must have arisen from the vegetable matter which the bird had eaten. " Thinking something might be learnt from the colour of the pectoral muscles when cooked, I had the muscles of the hybrid and of the grey hen baked. Those of the grey hen then presented the usual contrast characteristic of the Black Grouse ; but the muscles of the hybrid were nearly white, the lower muscle being slightly brighter in colour than the upper one. The flesh of the hybrid was much inferior in flavour to that of the black Grouse, being rather dry and tasteless, much like the flesh of a red-legged Partridge. I have preserved the breast-bone and pelvis; and they accompany this memorandum." I may remark that, so far as m y own experience goes, and from what I have ascertained from the various Swedish and Russian |
