BIRDS — TETRAONIDAE — LAGOPUS AMEEICANUS. 



637 



feathers ; the lower jaw with a prominent ridge on the sides helow. Tail rather shortj scarcely 

 more than half the wings. First quill intermediate between sixth and seventh. 



Color in winter jjure white with a faint rosy tint, even including the tail feathers. The 

 shafts of the larger primaries brown. 



The only specimens I have seen are in winter dress. The summer plumage is said by 

 Richardson to be varied with blackish brown and ochraceous. 



The two skins of this bird before me, and probably the only ones in any American museum, 

 were collected in January, 1858, by Captain E. B, Marcy, on his march from Fort Bridger 

 across the Eocky mountains to Santa Fc, in search of provisions and animals for the Utah 

 army, under Colonel Johnston. They were met with near the summit of the mountains, 

 probably near the Cochetope Pass. 



List of specimens. 



LAGOPUS AMEEICANUS? Aud. 



American Ptarmigan. 



?" Tetrao lagopus, Sabine, E., Suppl. Parry's 1st Voyage, p. cxcvii. — Sadine, J., Franklin's Jour. 682. — Rich. 



App. Parry's 2d Voyage, 350." 

 Tetrao (Lag-opiu) mutus, Rich. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 350. 

 Telrao mutus, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 196. 

 Lagopus americanus, Ave. Syn. 1839, 207.— Ib. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 119 ; pi. 300. 



A ptarmigan, supposed by some authors to be the Lagopus mutus or alpinus of Europe, is 

 mentioned by authors as found on Baffin's bay and Churchill river. Mr. Audubon, on an 

 examination of specimens brought from those countries, considers them distinct, but gives no 

 appreciable characters to separate them. The differences are probably very slight, if they 

 really exist. The European or Scotch ptarmigan has the bill slenderer than in L. albiis, 

 though the size is scarcely less. The summer plumage, however, is very different, the tints 

 being mottled gray, without any of the reddish brown or yellow of the other. The winter 

 dress is white ; the male with a black line from the bill through the eye. 



It is quite probable that some of the specimens enumerated under the head of L. riipestris 

 really belong here. 



