162 NOTES ON THE 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Tail of eighteen feathers; reddish- brown or gray above, the 

 back with cordate spots of lighter; beneath whitish, transverse- 

 ly barred with dull-brown; tail tipped with gray, and with a 

 subterminal bar of black; broad feathers of the ruff black. 



Length, 18; wing, 7.20; tail, 7. 



Habitat, Eastern United States. 



LAGOPrS LAGOPUS (L.). (301.) 



WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 



Having listed this bird from time to time on the fact of find- 

 ing it in several collections, and in the hands of the taxider- 

 mists, without having found it after many years of observation, 

 I had about concluded to regard it as a straggler, when I was 

 more fortunate and secured one at least 20 miles northeast of 

 Anoka. Since then I have obtained several, and have in my 

 possession as perfect a pair in winter plumage as I have ever 

 seen, mounted and presented to me by the Messrs. Howling, 

 on Christmas, 1890. 



The entire plumage is white in winter except the tail which 

 is black, narrowly tipped with white, and the shafts of the 

 quills which are also black. The bill is very robust and arched, 

 and black, while the nails of the toes are black at the base, and 

 pale horn color at the tips. I have learned nothing of their 

 habits from personal observation. They must be accounted 

 rare in Minnesota. Their habitat as given by the A. O. U. is 

 "Arctic regions; in America south to Sitka, British Provinces, 

 and to Northern New York." To this we must add Minnesota. 



TYMPANTJCHUS AMERICANUS (Reichenbach). (305.) 



PRAIRIE HEN. 



The local history of the Pinnated Grouse does not differ ma- 

 terially from that of any other prairie country recently brought 

 under civilization and cultivation. Prom the most reliable 

 sources within my reach, I learn that when the white man first 

 came to Minnesota, these birds were by no means common. 

 Rev. E. G. Gear, one of the earlier chaplains in the regular 

 army, stationed first at Fort Snelling and afterwards at Fort i 

 Ripley, (or perhaps in the reverse order), was a very accurate 

 observer of all natural history phenomena, and especially so 

 in the department of birds. • 



