Ko. V.] 



ZOOLOGY. 



681 



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that the first opinion was correct, and Phasianellus remains the established specific 

 name. There is no difference observable between the sexes, but the summer plumage 

 is brighter and darker than the winter ; specimens in both states were received, 

 the latter from Cumberland-House, the former from the neighbourhood of York 



Factory . 





Tetrao Saliceti. White 



The differences between the species of Grouse which assume white plumage in 

 winter, have been very imperfectly understood until lately ; it is not, therefore, 

 extraordinary that in the accounts of these birds, particularly in those of early 

 writers, the descriptions should have been incorrectly referred to the different 



more 



instances inhabitants of the same countries. The species now before us takes 

 precedence, on account of its size, by which, and the following peculiarities, it 

 is distinguished. In summer its colour is dark chestnut, with little marking of 

 other colour on the breast, and generally with less of the white and black spots, 

 and undulating lines, which vary and cross the feathers of the others ; it is without 

 any black line of feathers from the bill to the eye, so that in winter, with the excep- 

 tion of the tail and the shafts of the wing-feathers, it is entirely white ; the bill 

 is short, strong, and black, and the claws, which in the other two species are black, 

 in this are white ; the legs and feet are thickly covered in winter with feathers, 

 which have some resemblance to the hair of quadrupeds. The remarkable pro- 

 perty which Grouse, that become white in winter, possess, of doubling each 

 feather, is well known to naturalists ; from the base of the shaft of all the feathers 

 which cover the bodies of the birds, there proceeds, on the under side, a small, but 

 perfect feather, of a downy softness, which is no doubt a provision of nature to 

 protect them from the inclemency of the winter to which they are exposed. The 

 White Grouse, of the countries round Hudson's Bay, are inhabitants of the plains, 

 where bushes of willows abound, on the buds of which they support themselves ; 

 from this circumstance they have acquired the appellation 



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or Partridges, among the settlers, as well as the present specific name given by 

 Temminck, in preference to that of Albus, by which the species was designated 

 by Linnaeus. It is the Lagopede de la Bale de Hudson of Buffon. Hearne has 



them 



or 



parts of North America which he visited. Specimens, in perfect white plumage, 

 with very few coloured feathers, are frequently received from Hudson's Bay, 

 but are of rare occurrence in the summer dress. The bird was figured by Edwards 

 under the name of the White Partridge, but his specimen was only partially white, 

 being in a state of change. Forster, who received it amongst the collection he 



4 S 



