748 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — GALLIN.E — ALECTOROPODES. 



below the same on a pale brownish-ochre ground. 9 i" summer similarly marked on a 

 pale grayish-buff ground. Atkha Island; type specimens Nos. 85,597-85,600, U. S. N. M. 

 May 29 and June 7, 1879. L. mutus atkhensis Turner, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. v, July, 1882, 

 p. 227 and p. 230; Coues, Key, 2d ed. 1884, p. 588. L. rupestris atkhensis Nelson, 

 Cruise Corvvin, 1883, p. 56 e (an erratum leaf cancelling L. rupestris occidentalis of p. 82); 

 Turner, Cont. Nat. Hist. Alaska, 1886, p. 155, pi. 3 ^,4 9; Ridgw. Man. 1887, p. 201; 

 A. O. U. No. 302 c. 



Li, r. towu'sendi. (To Chas. H. Townsend.) Townsend's Eock Ptarmigan. Kyska 

 and Adak Ptarmigan. Based on specimens taken on Kyska Island, June 8, 1894, Nos. 



135,634 ^, 135,636 9, 

 U. S. Nat. Mus.; and 

 others on Adak Island, 

 July 4th. Elliot, Auk, 

 Jan. 1896, p. 26; A. O. 

 U. Suppl. List, Auk, 

 Jan. 1897, p. 119, No. 

 302 d. As Mr. Elliot 

 says: "Comparisons of 

 Ptarmigans should be 

 niade between indi- 

 viduals not only from 

 the same locality, but 

 also taken in the same 

 month, if possible the 

 same day, for these 

 perplexing birds being 

 in a constant state of 

 moult, a few days' dif- 

 ference in their time of 

 capture exhibits much 

 change in their appear- 

 ance, and one who has 

 not studied them care- 

 fully with sufficient ma- 

 terial, could easily be 

 led to form an erroneous 

 opinion regarding the 

 status of a subspecific or 

 even a specific form." I have little faith in the expediency, even in the possibility, of distin- 

 guishing this from the three foregoing subspecies, all of which are lumped by the latest mo- 

 nographer, Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii, 1893, p. 48. The two following appear 

 to be better marked. 



Li. welch'i. (To Geo. 0. Welch, of Lynn, Mass.) Welch's Ptarmigan. Newfound- 

 land Ptarmigan. Similar to L. rupestris. $ in summer less regularly or very confusedly 

 vermiculated and dotted with black on a gray ground with little if any tinge of tawny, and 

 shafts of primaries brown. 9 lacking the black transocular bar. " Tlie general effect is that 

 of a dark grayish-plumbeous bird, plentifully besprinkled with fine dots of 'pepper-and-salt' 

 color." Newfoundland ; believed to be peculiar to that island, where true riq^estris does not 

 occur, and therefore not to intergrade. Brewst. Auk, Apr. 1885, p. 194 ; Ridgw. Man. 1887, 

 p. 201 ; A. 0. U. No. 303. 



Fig. 504. — Wliite-tailed Ptarmigan in Winter. 

 America," by D. G. Elliot.) 



(From " Game Birds of North 



