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Show 236 MR. R. COLLETT ON HYBRID GROUSE. [^Pr- ~®> pointed out in my previously mentioned article of 1872, the " Rype- Orre " should receive the name of Lagopus tetrici-albus, assuming that the descent is as above supposed. Other Hybrids of the Genus Lagopus. 1. Lagopus scoticus and Tetrao tetrix.-In the spring of 1877 I had the opportunity of examining a specimen in Mr. Dresser's collection in London which was considered to be a hybrid between Tetrao tetrix and Lagopus scoticus. This specimen was a male, shot in Scotland on the 12th of September, 1876. Its hybrid nature was discernible at first glance from tbe formation of the tail and the covering of the toes, which were exactly like the northern ' Rype-Orre.' The colour was brownish black, the back was finely mottled with brown on an almost black ground; the breast was black, the head and throat black with fine brown spots ; the abdomen had reddish-brown cross lines, the lower tail-coverts white edges, as also had several of the feathers on the sides of the rump. In conformity with the name which above is given to the North- European Rype-Orre, the Scotch specimen, provided the mother in both instances is Tetrao tetrix, has been named Lagopus tetrici-scoticus (Nyt Magazin for Naturv., Christiania, 1877, vol. xxiii. p. 163). Another specimen of the same hybrid, also a male, was described by Malm, from Gothenburg, in Sweden. This was found in December 1877, at a spot where Lagopus scoticushad been introduced in 1861 and 1862 ((Efv. Kgl. Vetensk.-Akad. Forh. 1880, p. 17). This bird was called by Malm Lagopotetrix dicksonii. 2. Lagopus albus and Lagopus mutus.-As in the previous notes it has been supposed possible that the male Lagopus albus may be as desirous of forming an illegitimate connection as the male Tetrao tetrix, I shall touch upon another question affecting the same subject. It has probably appeared to be strange that, notwithstanding that Lagopus albus and Lagopus mutus often appear in considerable numbers in the same districts in Northern Europe, and generally share each other's haunts, no evidence of across between them, so far as is known, has ever appeared. It is not probable that the cause of this should have its origin in a true repugnance in the two closely-allied species to form hybrids. Probably these hybrids are less rare than one imagines, as it requires an accustomed eye to discern them in the multitudinous garbs in which these two species appear from spring-time until the approach of winter. Even I myself have but once found one, which is now mounted in the University Museum at Christiania. It was shot at Rbrosin the middle of September 1883. This specimen is an old male in autumnal plumage, and is thus at a stage when the contrast between the plumage of the two parents is most marked and striking. At this time the old Lagopus mutus obtains its peculiar bluish-grey autumnal dress, in which each feather on a light ashy-grey ground is finely freckled with black, without forming distinct cross lines, whilst in Lagopus albus each feather has reddish-brown spots and cross lines on a black |