50 Mr. L. Stejneger on the Shedding of 



VI. — On the Shedding of the Claws in the Ptarmigan and 

 allied Birds^. By Leonhard Stejneger. 



The fact of the Ptarmigans shedding their claws regularly 

 every summer seems not to have been observed personally by 

 any of the many excellent American ornithologists^ and has 

 thei^fore been comparatively little known to them. It may 

 consequently not be without interest to demonstrate this 

 process^ as I have material at hand which shows the proce- 

 dure very plainly. 



The late Professor Sven Nilssou, the famous Swedish 

 zoologist^ was the first to discover this peculiarity in the 

 Ptarmigans. His countryman, Professor W. Meves, after- 

 wards confirmed his observations, and at the same time proved 

 that this singular shedding of the claws also occurs in other 

 birds of the family Tetraonidas — as, for instance, in both sexes 

 of Bonasa bonasia, UroyaUus urogallus, and also, in the female 

 at least, of Lyrurus tetrix. 



As will be seen in the specimens of Lagopus ridgwayi 

 (a new species which I was fortunate enough to detect on 

 the Commander Islands, near Kamtschatka), shot in June 

 and August, before shedding, the middle claw measures 18-20 

 millim., while in the specimen shot on the 23rd of August, 

 and which has just thrown the old ones ofi*, the length of the 

 new claw is only 11 millim. More instructive still is a male 

 shot on the same day, as it has the claws only partially shed. 

 The old claws have become loosened from their base and are 

 forced 2-3 millim. out, still covering the tips of the new ones, 

 except on two toes, from which they have already dropped 

 off. Hence it is obvious that the process is not a patho- 

 logical one, in which the nail drops oft' as soon as it is perfectly 

 separate from its bed and has ceased to receive nourishment 

 through the blood-vessels. 



Most conclusive, however, is a specimen of a quite different 

 species, Lagopus alhus, a specimen collected by Dr. Bean on 

 Unga, one of the Shumagin Islands, Alaska. About this 



* Read before the Biological Society of Wasliington, April 5th, 1884^ 

 and reprinted from the 'American Naturalist,' vol. xviii. p. 774. 



