LAGOPUS. PTARMIGAN. 167 



slender ; the first very short and elevated, the third much 

 longer than the second, which is about the same length as the 



fourth ; they have all a few 

 terminal scutella, and the an- 

 terior three are webbed at the 

 base. The claws are rather 

 long, arched, depressed, with 

 the rido^e narrow, the sides 



Fig. 46. Foot of Broicn Ptarmigan. , ° 



slopmg, the edges thni, the tip 

 obtuse ; that of the hind toe smaller and more curved. 



Plumage full, close, compact, imbricated. The feathers at 

 the base of the bill small and slender ; those on the head ob- 

 long ; on the body generally oblong ; more than half of their 

 length is downy, and the plumule is nearly as long ; the tube 

 short, enlarged at the base. The feathers on the h}^ochon- 

 drial spaces and abdomen are entirely downy. The wings 

 are short, broad, curved and much rounded ; the primary quills 

 ten, narrow, rounded, the first six cut out from near the base, 

 so that when the wing is extended intervals are left between 

 them ; the fourth longest, the first about the length of the 

 seventh; secondary quills fifteen, decurved, rounded. Tail 

 short, broad, slightly rounded and retuse, of sixteen feathers, 

 the two middle ones situated above the line of the rest. 



The Ptarmigans, of which only five species are known, viz. 

 Lagojnis scoticus^ L. vulgaris., L. saliceti., L. 7'upestris, and L. 

 leucurus^ of authors, are natives of the colder regions of Asia, 

 Europe, and America. They live upon vegetable substances, 

 twigs and leaves of shrubs, grasses, seeds, and berries, which 

 they pick up on the ground. The food is collected in the crop, 

 where it remains unaltered, being merely bedewed with the 

 mucus necessary for deglutition. It gradually passes into the 

 gizzard, where, besides being mixed with the proventricular 

 fluid, it is triturated by the action of the muscles, and the rugag 

 of the cuticular lining, aided by numerous particles of white 

 quartz. Thus comminuted, it passes into the intestine in a 

 pulpy state, but with the vegetable fibres still distinct, and is 

 there further diluted, first by the pancreatic, then by the biliary 

 fluids, when the chyle is absorbed, and the mass gradually be- 



