TETRAONIDJ^: GROUSE. 743 



light gray cordate or arrow-headed spots uarrowly bordered with bhick ; tail-feathers finely 

 venniculated with black, and with a broad subti^rmiual black zone. Ruffle glossy greenish- 

 black. Under parts wliilish, more or less tinged with tawny-brown, with several broad brown 

 cross-bars on each featliei-, largest and most distinct on long feathers of sides, some of which 

 have also white shaft-lines ; heavy feathers of flanks and vent mostly whitish, unmarked. 

 Feathei-s of fore-neck and scapulars blended with gray, rich reddish-bnjwn, ochrey-brown, and 

 white, in indescribable confusion. Most of the wing-coverts with white shaft-lines. Hen 

 with ruffle less developed, varied with brown and white. General tone more rufous than 

 in the cock. Rocky Mountain region, U. S. and British America, running into both the other 

 varieties. 



B. u. sabi'nei. (To J. Sabine.) Red -Ruffed Grouse. Oregon Ruffed Grouse. 

 More nearly resembling the common Ruffed Grouse, but coloration more heavily brown, — 

 darker and richer. More blacki.sh to the brown, and latter almost chestnut in well-marked 

 cases. Pacific coast region, northern California to British Columbia. This bird was dis- 

 covered by Lewis and Clark in 1805-6, and first named Tetrao fusca by Ord, Guthrie's 

 Geogr. 2d Am. ed. ii, 1815, p. 317. But owing to the badly edited text of the History (»f the 

 Expedition published in 1814, what Lewis and Clark meant by their "small brown" was 

 unintelligible till I found out by examination of their original manuscripts: see the 1893 edi- 

 tion of the History, p. 872. In strictness, therefore, this bird should be called B. umbella fusca 

 CouES; but I waive the point in favor of B. u. sabinei CouES, Key, 1872, p. 235, as this is 

 the established name, adopted liy the A. 0. U. No. .'300 c, after Tetrao sabinei of Douglas, 

 wlio rediscovered the bird and described it in Trans. Linn. Soc xvi, 1829, p. 137. 

 LAGO'PUS. (Gr. XaycoTTouj, lugopous, Lat. lagopus, hare-foot : the densely feathered feet 

 resemble those of rabbits.) Ptarmigan. Snow Grouse. No peculiar feathers on head or 

 neck. Tarsi and toes densely feathered. Tail short, little rounded, normally of 14 broad 

 feathers, with long upper coverts, some of which resemble rectrices, the central pair of these 

 usually reckoned as rectrices, making 16. A naked red comb over eye. Eggs most heavily 

 colored (except in L. leucurus). Boreal and alpine Grouse, shaped nearly as in Catiachites, 

 remarkable for their changes of plumage, becoming in winter snow-white (excepting the British 

 insular race), with or without black tail and loral stripe. The plumage is subject to frequent 

 and rapid change, either by loss and gain of feathers, or by their wear and tear; there are 

 ordinarily tiiree difft-rent plumages a year, not the same in summer in opposite sexes of some 

 sfiecies ; the shed<iiiig extends even to the claws, which are dropped jieriodically when they 

 liave overgrown, like some portions of the claws of some lemmings. Pullets when half 

 grown drop their first flight-feathers, which are brown, and the new set comes out white in 

 all the species but one. Hence, specific characters founded upon color alone are peculiarly 

 fallacious in this genus. We have three well-known good species, one of them with several 

 alleged subspecies; I record all these, also the three other North American forms, without 

 vouching for any excepting L. lagopus, L. rujiestris, and L. leucurus. The cxtralimital spe- 

 cies are: (1) L. scoticus, the Red Grouse, Rod Game, or Moor-f..wl of Britain. (2) L. mutus 

 or alpinus, the Ptarmigan most properly so-called, of Continental Europe from the Pyrenees 

 and Alps northward, also in Scotland. (3) L. hijperboreus or hemileucurus, of Spitzbergeu, 

 witli the tail partly white in winter. The word ptarmigan, with an unexplained initial p, 

 dating back over 200 years, is from the Gaelic taruutihan. suppi'sed to mean mountaineer, and 

 was earlier spelled termigant, termagant, etc 



Analt/si.1 of Specien, (ilhijnl Spr.i,--. and .1. <>■ I'. Siihsprrii'S. 



Tail block at all seasons. 



In winter, no black stripe on head. Bill stout. 



Secondaries wliite-shafted. Nortliern N. Am. and Europe, etc hi/jopus 



Secondaries black-shafted. Newfoundland only .. <i rm 



