178 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PIIEHSANT SHOOTING, 



AVniTE-TAILED PTARMIGAN. 



Lagopus lencurus. — Swainson & Richardson. 



^wj^lABITS. — This species was first procured b}^ Mr. 

 ^Sjji l^i'iimiiiond, and described by Swainson in the 

 g^^ " Fa^ma Borealis." Five specimens were taken on 

 %^ the Eocky Mountains in the 54th parallel, and ano- 

 ther, by Mr. Mac Pherson, on the same chain, nine degrees 

 farther north. Thej^ were said to have all the habits of 

 the other Ptarmigans, and to inhabit the snowy peaks near 

 the mouth of the Columbia, as well as the lofty ridges of 

 the Rock}^ Mountains. 



We have but little reliable information in regard to the 

 habits and distribution of this species. It seems to be con- 

 fined entirely to the range of the Rock}^ Mountains, and 

 to be found only among their highest points, occurring at 

 least as far to the south as Cochetope Pass, in latitude 39°, 

 and extending north to an undetermined extent. Speci- 

 mens were procured in 1858 by Captain R. B. Marcy, on 

 his march from Fort Bridger, in Utah, across the Rocky 

 Mountains to Santa Fe. They were met with near the 

 summit of the mountains not far from Cochetope Pass. 



Mr. Charles E. Aiken writes me that he has been in- 

 formed that this bird is common on the Snowy Range, in 

 Colorado Territory. He was informed by an old miner, 

 who claimed to have met with these birds breeding near 

 the top of the range in June, that their nest, composed of 

 leaves and grass, is placed on the ground among bushes on 

 hill sides; that the eggs are fourteen in number, of a hght 

 !)luish-brown, marked and s])ottod with a darker shade of 

 brown. 



Mr. J. A. Allen (Am. Nat., June, 1872), mentions finding, 

 among the snow-fields of the higher parts of the moun- 

 tains of Colorado, this Grouse as one of the essentially 

 Arctic species tliat were not met with below the region of 



