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Show 1886.] MR. R. COT.LETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. 225 I will therefore endeavour to recount the most important features which have hitherto been noticed concerning this hybrid, which, on account of its rarity, as well as its pretty and peculiar external appearance, is well suited to attract the attention of naturalists. The earliest account of this hybrid dates from the year 1788, as Sparrman at that time gave an illustration of it and briefly mentioned it as " Tetrao tetrix, mas, varietas" in the third issue of the ' Museum Carlsonianum' (pi. 65), without, apparently, having suspected its hybrid character. In 1795 this was first noticed by Sommerfelt (' Topographisk Journal for Norge,' 14 Hefte, p. 50, Christiania, 1795), who described two specimens from the districts about Mjosen in Southern Norway, which he regarded as a hybrid between Tetrao tetrix and Lagopus albus. From the description, which is comparatively detailed (see below), it is evident that the specimens were males in winter plumage. Subsequently a male shot in Wermeland in Sweden in 1808 was mentioned and figured by Thunberg (Vet.-Akad. Handl. Stockholm, 1808, p. 195), and he also recognized its hybrid character. The first who gave a more detailed and elaborated description of it was Nilssonin his ' Ornithologia Suecica ' in 1817, and subsequently in his various editions of his ' Skandinavisk Fauna.' Since then it has been occasionally treated of in different works on the fauna of Scandinavia, and here its winter plumage has also been given on plates, as inNilsson, ' Illuminerade Figurer till Skandinavisk Fauna' (plate 5); Lindblad, 'Svenska Jagareforbundets nya tidskrift,' vol.xi. plate 4 (1873); Sundevall, • Svenska Foglarna,' plate 34 ; and Lloyd, ' Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway ' (London, 1867), & C 1 Distribution. The " Rype-Orre" has hitherto only been found in Northern and North-eastern Europe, and is known from Norway, Sweden, and Northern Russia. According to a report which I have just received from Dr. Pleske (of St. Petersburg), these hybrids in Russia are not very unusual. Most of them are obtained in the game market; therefore no special information can be given concerning the localities in which they were procured. He believes that about eight specimens are at present preserved in the Museum at St. Petersburg, most of which are males in winter plumage. Dr. Meves, of Stockholm, informs me that in 1872 he saw two specimens in winter plumage in the Museum at Moscow, both males ; whilst others, said to be females, were only partial albinos of the female Tetrao tetrix. Dr. Kolthoff, of Upsala, has also seen two male and one female Russian specimens. It is remarkable enough that as yet there is no proof of their occurrence in Finland ; for Mela says, " It has not been recognized 1 In the ' Zeitschr. fur die gesammte Ornithologie,' 2 Jahrg. 1885, p. 47, tab. iii. (Budapest, 1885), Herr Henke has figured and treated of a specimen from Archangel under the name of Tetrao cdbo-tctrix hybridus, fern. This specimen is clearly only a partial albino of T. tetrix, fern. |
