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Show 234 MR. R. COLLETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. [Apr. 20, Lagopotetrix lagopoides, Malm, (Efv. Kgl. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1880, p. 30. In opposition to this assumption respecting its paternity, in 1872, in a treatise " Remarks on the Ornithology of Northern Norway" (Forhandl.Vidensk. Selskabet i Christiania, 1872, p. 238), I advanced the opinion that the Rype-Orre was an offspring of the male Lagopus albus and female Tetrao tetrix, a theory which, singularly enough (although without any proof), was started by Sommerfelt so early as 1823 in his descriptions of the specimen in summer plumage ! (cf above). In support of this theory I certainly could not produce direct observations or positive proofs, but I stated some circumstances which, according to my views, caused the descent from the male Lagopus albus to be more probable than from that of the Blackcock. In conclusion, I expressed the hope that intelligent sportsmen or naturalists might soon be fortunate enough to institute observations by which this question might be clearly solved. Although this was written fourteen years ago, nothing has as yet appeared in northern literature to throw a light on the subject. I shall not here set forth at length the reasons which caused me to advance this hypothesis ; they will be found given in Dresser's ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. vii. p. 213. They are chiefly derived from a comparison with the second and better-known hybrid, the " Rakkelfugl," concerning which it is an undoubted fact that it is descended from the male Tetrao tetrix and the female Tetrao urogallus. In this case, too, the father belongs to the smaller, the mother to the larger species; and the offspring is a hybrid in which the male is of about the same size as its mother. It is also a well-known fact that the male Willow Grouse is often found in the breeding-haunts of the Tetrao tetrix, and undoubtedly frequents them more often than is generally known. Every sportsman is aware that amongst the Willow-Grouse (and the Ptarmigan) an excess of males is to be met with, which throughout the summer ramble about on the mountains, and these are probably willing to form connections whenever an opportunity offers. My friend Prof. Friis has witnessed a remarkable proof of the eagerness of the male Willow-Grouse's desire to mate. In the spring of 1857 he observed at one of the most elevated farms in Nordmore (Bergen stift) a male Willow-Grouse which for several succeeding days kept near the house and endeavoured to form a connection with a white speckled domestic hen. Finally it is worth recording that two young male Rype-Orre, shot in October 1845, in Hedemora, Sweden, were accompanied by a female bird, apparently their mother, which was supposed to be a Greyhen 2. This observation would have been of great weight in 1 "Af denne Slajgts (Tetrao) hybride Yngel forekom mig paa Toten i Juli Maaneds Begyndelse folgende, som sygnes at vaare en Affodning of Aarhonen og Eype-Hannen " [From the hybrid brood of this genus I obtained the following in the beginning of July, which appears to be an offspring of the Greyhen and tbe male Willow-Grouse] (Nyt Mag. f. Naturv. 1st ser. vol. ii. Christiania, 1823, p. 71). 2 (Efv. Kgl. Vet.-Akad. F6rh. 1847, p. 201. |
