74 TETRAONIDj;. 



Wings sbort, concave, with the third and fourth feathers the longest. Tail of 

 sixteen feathers, generally square at the end. Tarsi and toes completely 

 feathered ; hind toe very short, and barely touching the ground with the tip of 

 the nail. Nails long, and nearly straight. 



This handsome species is the British representative of the 

 Willow-Grouse {Lagopas alhns), which ranges from Norway 

 across the entire continents of Europe, Asia, and North 

 America. There can he little question that hoth species are 

 sprung from a common stock, and that our hird is an 

 example of an insular form which is found nowhere else in 

 a natural state.* It is the only one of the genus Lagopus 

 which does not turn white in winter, and it differs slightly 

 from its nearest ally in its summer dress, in its call-note, 

 and in some of its habits ; but no structural differences 

 between the two species have as yet been discovered. The 

 remains of what may fairly be considered as the ancestor of 

 these two forms have been found in the bone-caves of the 

 south of France and also in Germany ; and the Editor 

 possesses an example of the Willow-Grouse assuming the 

 summer garb, which was obtained in May as far south as 

 the neighbourhood of Tiflis, in the Caucasus. The Red 

 Grouse is probably an isolated descendant which has lost 

 the power of turning white with the passing away of the 

 necessity for doing so for the purposes of assimilation. 



In Scotland, whence its specific name is derived, it is 

 generally distributed over all the moors from the highest 

 point where the ling (Calluna) and the heath (Erica) 

 flourish, down to the coast-line. It is also found on Lewis, 

 Harris, North and South Uist, Barra, and some of the 

 smaller islands of the Outer Hebrides, and is tolerably 

 abundant in Islay, Skye, Rum, and Jura, but is scarce in 

 Mull. Remarkably fine birds are produced in the Orkneys, 

 although not in large numbers ; but in the not far distant 

 Shetlands it is not indigenous, and the few introduced birds 

 have failed to maintain themselves there. The low sandy 



* About fourteen years ago Mr. Osoar Dickson successfully introduced tliis 

 species into the district of Gottenberg, Southern Sweden, corresponding in 

 latitude with Aberdeen. 



