WELCH’S PTARMIGAN. 
HIS may be called the Rock Ptarmigan of New- 
foundland, and is a dark-grayish bird with a bluish 
tinge to the plumage, which has been likened to the 
color of the Sooty Grouse, and all the feathers are dotted 
with blackish. It is very numerous in the rocky portions 
of the island it inhabits, distributed among the moun- 
tains in the interior, and is rather local, not going far 
from the place in which it was reared. It may be con- 
sidered the Alpine species of Newfoundland Ptarmigan, 
not often met with below the line of spruce forest, except 
when it descends in winter to feed on the buds of various 
trees growing in the lowlands. It is sometimes called 
the Mountain Partridge, and occasionally associates with 
the Willow Grouse. Very little is known of its habits. 
ELAGOP US ROUPEST RIS WELCH. 
Geographical Déestributicon.—Mountains of Newfoundland. 
Adult Male im Summer.—Entire upper parts, and upper 
tail-coverts, brownish gray, vermiculated and spotted with 
black, many feathers having white tips, and some with white 
bars near the tips; front, chin, upper part of throat, cheeks, 
and back of neck, barred with black and white; top of head, 
rufous, blotched with black; lores, black; tail, blackish brown, 
lighter toward the edges of the webs; a number of feathers barred 
with black and white on upper part of breast; on lower breast, 
belly, and under tail-coverts, white, interspersed on the first 
with numerous feathers colored like the breast; thighs and 
feathers of tarsi, white; on toes, yellowish white; wing-coverts, 
like the back; bill and claws, horn color. Total length, 14 inches; 
wing, 74; tail, 44; tarsus, 14; exposed culmen, 4 inch, 
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