THE WILLOW GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN. 



39 



Adult Male and Female.— Autumn Plumage. — Upper-parts, middle 

 pair of tail-fealhers, breast, and sides grey, finely mottled with 

 black, and sometimes with buff; rest of under-parts white. 

 T\\^ female may generally be distinguished by having some 

 feathers of the faded summer plimiage remaining among the 

 grey autumn plumage. 



Male: Total length, 14*5 inches; wing, 7-6; tail, 4-6; tar- 

 sus, 1-3. 



Female: Total length, 14 inches; wing, 7*4; tail, 4*1; tar- 

 dus, 1-3. 



Range. — The mountains of Europe, and possibly also some of 

 the ranges of Central Asia, are the home of the Ptarmigan, but 

 the birds found in the latter localities should, perhaps, be re- 

 ferred to the more northern rufous form, Z. riipestris, which was 

 the bird found by Mr. Seebohm on the Yenesei at 71^° N. 

 latitude. In the west it ranges to the mountains of Scotland, 

 in the south to the Pyrenees and Alps, and in the east at least 

 as far as the Ural Mountains. 



Changes of Plumage. — ]\Ir. J. G. Millais, who has had excep- 

 tional opportunities of studying the plumage of the Ptarmigan 

 from different parts of Scotland, gives the following excellent 

 account of the various changes during the year :-=- 



^'•January. — The white plumage. 



*' February. — The same. (In very early spring the first 

 summer-plumage feathers begin to appear, always on the 

 neck.) 



" March and April. — Summer plumage coming gradually in, 

 the breast-feathers being the last to appear. 



"J/^zy.— Summer plumage quite complete by the last week 

 of the month. 



'■^ Jzi7ie. — Summer plumage. Males generally showing white 

 tips to feathers. 



'•''July. — The white tips to the feathers of the back and 

 breast in the male have now worn off the feathers, the breast 



