GREY PTARMIGAN. 195 



ocular membrane vermilion ; the claws dark brown at the 

 base, yellowish -brown towards the end. The feathers of the 

 head, and many of those of the neck and sides, are the same as 

 in summer ; but on the neck are numerous feathers barred with 

 white and brownish-black. Those on the back and sides are 

 for the most part minutely undulated with greyish-white and 

 black, some of them having considerable patches of the latter 

 in the central parts. The greater part of the breast, the abdo- 

 men, the legs, the quills excepting some of the inner, the pri- 

 mary and some of the secondary coverts, are white ; the shafts 

 of the primary quills dark bro^^^l. The tail-feathers are brown- 

 ish-black, tipped with white, and by this time the two central 

 feathers are often white. 



Lenofth to end of tail 15 inches; extent of wino^s 24 ; winof 

 from flexure 8 ; tail 4^ ; bill along the back 8c^ twelfths ; along 

 the edge lOj twelfths ; tarsus lj% ; first toe j%, its claw y\ ; 

 second toe j%, its claw j'^^ ; third toe 1, its claw 7i twelfths; 

 fourth toe 8^ twelfths, its claw 5^ twelfths. 



Female in Autumn. — The female differs in no essential re- 

 spects from the male. 



As the season advances, the yellow feathers gradually disap- 

 pear, and the grey ones become substituted by others of a white 

 colour. The white is first established on the flanks and wrings, 

 then on the neck, and finally on the back and rump. In a 

 male examined on the 21st October 1831, the parts which still 

 retained the autumnal plumage were the head, the neck, the 

 whole of the back and rump, and part of the hypochondria. 

 The wing-coverts, the breast, belly, lower tail-coverts and legs, 

 w^hite. The tail-feathers brownish-black tipped with wdiite, 

 the two middle ones white. The general tint of the mottled 

 plumage very light bluish-grey, sprinkled and undulated with 

 brownish-black, many of the feathers more or less tinged with 

 reddish-yellow ; those of the upper part of the head reddish- 

 yellow, mottled with black and white. 



Length 15 inches, extent of wings 26 ; bill along the back 

 f, along the edge of lower mandible ^% ; tarsus 1^, middle toe 

 and claw 1|. 



o 2 



