NELSON’S PTARMIGAN. 
HIS is a little-known race of Ptarmigan, specimens 
of which were procured by Mr. Nelson on Unalaska, 
one of the Aleutian Islands. It is said by Mr. Turner 
to be very abundant there, and also in Uminak, Akutan, 
and Akun, other islands of the same chain, and is a resi- 
dent wherever found, seldom leaving the island in which 
it was born. It prefers rocky ledges, but roosts and rears 
its young in the valleys. The mating season commences 
in May and lasts about three weeks, and the nest is 
usually placed in the tall grass. It is a very careless 
affair, composed of a little grass and some feathers from 
the hen’s breast, and before incubation is completed the 
eggs are generally lying on the bare ground. The num- 
ber of these varies from nine to seventeen, but eleven is 
the usual number. The period of incubation was not 
ascertained. The birds never go in large flocks, those 
that were seen being apparently the parents and their 
brood of a previous year. 
LAGOPRTOS ROUPESERIS (NELSON: 
Geographical Deistribution.—\slands of Unalaska, Unimak, 
Akutan, and Akun. Aleutian Chain. 
Adult Male tin Summer.—General color of entire plumage, 
dark russet, finely vermiculated with black, the center of the 
feathers showing occasionally as blotches; feathers of head and 
neck, tipped with ochraceous, giving this part-a lighter hue than 
the rest; lores and space beneath the eyes, black; comb over 
eye, scarlet; throat, white, barred with black; jugulum, breast, 
and flanks, much lighter than the back, vermiculated with black, 
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