GREY PTARMIGAN. 209 



we shall find that that species differs in nothing of the least 

 importance from the Grey Ptarmigan as above described. 

 Captain Sabine, who first pointed out the differences which he 

 considered sufficient to distinguish the Rock Grouse from the 

 Ptarmigan of Scotland, states that " the distribution of the 

 coloured plumage of the Rock Grouse corresponds both in the 

 male and female with the Ptarmigan, the same parts of both 

 species remaining white ; but there is much difference in the 

 colour itself, the upper plumage of the Ptarmigan is cinereous, 

 with undulating and narrow black lines and minute spots ; 

 whereas in the Rock Grouse each feather is black, cut by trans- 

 verse broad lines or bars of a reddish-yellow, which do not 

 reach the shaft, and have spaces of black between them broader 

 than themselves ; the feathers are tipped, in the male, with a 

 light colour, that approaches to white in the female." Now, 

 as the parts that remain white in summer are the same in 

 both, and as both are equally white in winter, these two cir- 

 cumstances tend to induce us to consider the two species as the 

 same. Secondly, the coloured summer plumage above described 

 corresponds with that of young birds of the Grey Ptarmigan, 

 which differ greatly from old birds in the breadth of their 

 markings ; and the feathers being tipped with a light colour or 

 with white, is an additional proof that Captain Sabine's Rock 

 Grouse in summer is merely the young Grey Ptarmigan. Fur- 

 ther, by the statements of both Captain Sabine and Dr. Rich- 

 ardson, the difference as to the length of the birds is not greater 

 than what occurs in undoubted specimens of the Grey Ptarmi- 

 gan, of which I have seen a male not exceeding 13i inches, 

 while the longest was two inches more. And if the measure- 

 ments be taken in summer, it must be remembered that the tail 

 does not attain its full length until November. In the Fauna 

 Boreali-Americana, the length of a female killed in summer, 

 and which had the white tips of the tail-feathers worn off, was 

 yet 14 inches, only half an inch shorter than female Scottish 

 Ptarmigans in winter, with complete plumage, not in the least 

 worn. Finally, I have examined the birds from which Dr. 

 Richardson's descriptions in the appendix to Captain Parry's 

 second voyage were taken, and I have not found one individual 



