746 



SVSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — GALLIN.E — ALECTOROPODES. 



the months of April, May, aud even in early June, according to the locality. The moult for 

 the summer is usually shown first on the head and neck, followed by the lower back, sides, 

 breast, middle back, Hanks, and abdomen, in the order named. The abdomen aud chiu are the 

 last areas to show the complete moult. The parts named also assume, in the order given, 

 the white winter plumage. During the time of the suuimer plumage scarcely a single day 

 passes that the general color of the feathers is not modified by the appearance or loss of some 

 feather." {Turner.) Hence the difficulty if not impossibility of establishing races of this 

 species upon color, as the amount of barring, vermiculation, or nebulation with dusky, tawny, 



Fio 502. — Eveiiuaim's Ptarmigan. 



and gray is so rapidly changing in the same individuals ; and birds taken at different dates in 

 summer, in the same locality, may differ from one another more than specimens from different 

 regions, representing several alleged varieties, are always finmd to do. Rock Grouse, of Pen- 

 nant and Latham; Tetrao rnpestris Gu. 1788; Aud. Orn. Biog. iv, 1838, p. 483, pi. 368. 

 T. (L.) rupestris Sw. and Rich. F. B. A. ii, 1831, p. 354, pi. 64. L. rupestris Leach, 

 1817; AuD. B. Am. v, 1842, p. 122, pi. 301 ; Elliot, Mon. Tet. 1865, pi. 23; and of authors 

 generally, as of all editions of the Key; A. 0. U. No. 302. But L. mutus var. rtipestris 

 RiDGW. in Bd. Brew, and Ridgw. N. A. B. iii, 1874, p. 462. 



