Interior of British North America. 127 



music to the ceremony. I cannot describe the sound, but it is 

 at times very loud, neither do I know how the birds make it. 

 All this is the scene for a picture, and I should like to see a 

 competent zoological artist take it in hand. 



Pedioecetes urophasianellus. 



This bird, described by Douglas ('Trans. Linn. Soc' xvi. 

 1829, p. 136), but passed over by Richardson and Swainson in the 

 ' Fauna Bor.-Am.,' Mr. Ross has re-established as a species; but 

 I have only here inserted it in italics, as I am not yet aware on 

 which side of the Rocky Mountains he obtained his specimens. 

 He has also procured the egg. 



BONASIA UMBELLDS. 



There is a specimen in the Smithsonian Institution of the 

 Ruffed Grouse from Red River Settlement. It is mentioned in 

 the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.^ ; and I observed it from near Hudson^s 

 Bay sparingly westward close to the Forks of the Saskatchawan, 

 but, being then ignorant of the existence of more than one species, 

 I do not know whether some individuals of this genus which 

 I found at the western base of the Rocky Mountains were of this 

 or another. Mr. Ross gives both B. umbellus and B. umhel- 

 loides as inhabitants of the Mackenzie. 



93. Lagopus albus. 



The Willow Grouse {Tetrao saliceti of the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.') 

 ranges across the interior, from Hudson's Bay to near the Rocky 

 Mountains. I obtained a chance bird ('Ibis,' vol. iv. p. 8) 

 near Fort Carlton ; but it is not every winter that they migrate 

 so far south on the Upper Saskatchawan. Nearer Lake Winipeg, 

 at Fort Cumberland and to the eastward, they are common every 

 winter ; and numbers of specimens are received from the shores 

 of Hudson's Bay, where it is in considerable request as an 

 article of food in winter. (Refer to the article on Geese.) Mr. 

 Ross mentions this species as common on the Mackenzie. 



Lagopus rupestris. 



The Rock Ptarmigan, on the authority of the ' Fauna Bor.- 

 Am.,' inhabits the " barren grounds" of the Arctic regions and 

 Hudson's Bay. Mr. Ross mentions it as rather rare on the 

 Mackenzie, but that it reaches the most northern land. 



