Ramble in Eastern Iceland ^c. 379 



Underparts. — On the upper throat the bars are broad^ on the 

 lower throat narrow^ and both of the same tint as the feathers 

 of the back^ i. e. brownish black and buff. Breast and abdo- 

 men white, with a few barred black and buff feathers on the 

 flanks. Chin Avhite, with more or less trace of the coloured 

 feathers. The young males have the transocular patch more 

 pronounced than the females. 



Professor Newton^ to whom a series of skins was sub- 

 mitted for inspection, and who instituted a comparison 

 between them and those of various Lagopodes in his posses- 

 sion, makes the following interesting remarks : — " Without 

 doubt they fully substantiate the opinion I have before 

 expressed, that Lat/opus I'upestris does not in autumn assume 

 the ash-grey plumage seen at the same season in L. mutus, 

 but I never before had convincing evidence to that effect. 

 One of the most remarkable things about your series is that 

 so many of the male specimens show traces of the orange- 

 coloured feathers (barred w^ith black) on the neck, breast, 

 and flanks, which I had thought to be indicative of the 

 female only. Though I see that some of these are marked 

 by you ' adult,'' I cannot help thinking that they must be 

 birds of the year. Your specimen obtained on September 18th 

 is almost feather for feather like one I have from Mr. Whym- 

 per from Greenland (and therefore L. reinhardti of authors) 

 bearing on its ticket ' Lichtenfels, 14th Sept. 1873.^ Diverse 

 as is the plumage of your specimens, I see in it only individual 

 variation such as Mr. Buckley (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 112) showed 

 to occur in Red Grouse killed on the same ground and 

 at the same time of the year. I should decline considering 

 L. rvpestris to be divisible into local races, as regards at 

 least Greenland and Iceland. I have no specimen, unfortu- 

 nately, from the American continent, and Spitsbergen ex- 

 amples certainly seem to be bigger than those from Greenland 

 or Iceland, but otherwise I fail to distinguish them. Now I 

 know that size means very little in the true Ptarmigan; ex- 

 amples from the Norwegian ' Alps ' are much smaller than 

 those from (e. g.) the island on which Hammerfest stands, 

 and therefore I attach not much importance to this fact. 



