210 LAGOPUS CINEREUS. 



presenting any characters different from those which I have 

 found in individuals of the Grey Ptarmigan killed in Scotland. 

 As to a difference in size observed by persons visiting museums, 

 I have only to remark, what every collector must know, that 

 two birds of equal size prepared either as skins or as stuffed 

 specimens by two individuals, may differ exceedingly in size. 

 I knew a bird-stuffer who in preparing Grouse, crammed 

 them to the utmost, to make them look fine large birds ; and 

 a person who has collected about a hundred skins of British 

 birds for me, has almost invariably made them much too short. 



It may further be mentioned that the soles of both are bare, 

 and that w^hat Latham states of the Rock Ptarmigan, " rupi- 

 bus insidens collo porrecto stertentis hominis sonum frequenter 

 emittit," is equally applicable to the Grey Ptarmigan. There- 

 fore, considering all circumstances, having examined a multi- 

 tude of Scottish Ptarmigans in all states, and having inspected 

 several so-called Rock Ptarmigans from North America, and 

 one or two considered as such and killed in Scotland, I am 

 almost persuaded that the Lagopus mutus and Lagopus rupestris 

 of North America, are merely the species which I have, to 

 avoid confusion, named the Grey Ptarmigan, Lagopus cinereus. 

 At the same time, I have not seen American specimens of any 

 kind that exhibited the beautiful pale grey colour of our Scot- 

 tish Ptarmigans. As to those from the continent which I have 

 examined, I have found in them nothing but the great breadth 

 of the yellow and black bars that indicated any remarkable 

 difference. Lagopus leucurus^ from its small size and white 

 tail, is very probably a true species. 



Finally, I object to the specific name mutus^ given to the 

 Grey Ptarmigan, that the bird is not mute ; and to alhus^ that 

 the Willow Ptarmigan is equally white in winter. The latter 

 species is in summer the only one of the three that is red ; and 

 therefore I would name it the Red Ptarmigan ; while the 

 species commonly called the Red Grouse, being less red than 

 that just mentioned, and presenting a brown mottled appear- 

 ance, might be named the Brown Ptarmigan ; and the present 

 species, being the only one that is at any time grey, ought 

 therefore to be called the Grey Ptarmigan. 



