Male.—Elongated feathers of the throat black ; the rest of the head and neck ashy black ; eyebrows red ; wings and scapular. brown, sprinkled with small black dots; breast changeable green ; belly and abdomen black, with white spots ; rump and flanks sprinkled with ashy zigzags on a black ground ; tail-feathers black, with some small white spots disposed at about two inches from their extremities; bill nearly 3 inches long, very strong, hooked, and of a whitish Itoru colour ; iris clear brown ; length about 2 feet 10 inches; usual weight front 9 to 12 lbs. Craves says that the fine specimen from which his figure was taken measured 3 feet l i1 inch in length, 7 feet 5 inches in breadth, and weighed 15 lbs. 2i ounces.
Femele.—Striped and spotted with red or bay, black and white ; feathers of the head bright ruddy, and those of the breast deep red ; tail ruddy, striped with black ; bill blackish-brown ; size about one third leas than that of the male.
Young Males, after their first Moult.—Breast of a lees lustroua green than in the old birds, and the ash-colour predominating over the black ; some rod feathers spotted with black are scattered irregularly over the plumage. Before the first moult the young males resemble the females.
Mr. Lloyd says that the capercali occasionally breed with the black game, the product of which are in Sweden called Racklehanen these partake of the leading characters of both species ; but their size and colour greatly depend upon whether the connection was between the capercali oock and the gray hen, or vice vend. "Out of twenty
racklehanar, which is the male, two, according to Mr. Falk, are not alike; and the difference of colour observable among the racklelitinan, which is the female, but very rare, is still greater. Racklehanen are very seldom to be met with. During my stay In Wermeland. however, Mr. Falk had two of these birds in his possession, and I myself shot a third." The bird here alluded to was probably the Rakelhan (Tetra) medius of Meyer), which Temminek observes, some naturalists, and recently M. Nilsson, have erroneously considered a hybrid between the Cspercali and Black-Cock. But at Braemar, in 1829, in consequence of the death of the hen which had been imported with a cock, a common barn-door hen was introduced to the latter. The result, according to Mr. Wilson, was, that she laid several eggs, which were placed under other liens; but from these eggs only a single bird was hatched, and when it was first observed it was found lying dead. It was, however, an evident mule or hybrid, and showed such unequivocal narks of the capercali character as could not be mistaken.