GROUSE, PARTRIDGES 205 



While occasionally stray birds may be heard drumming at 

 almost any time of the year, even in mid winter, the sound is 

 not so vigorously or often repeated as in spring time at which 

 season it is doubtless used both as a challenge to other males 

 in the vicinity and to attract the female. All our Maine birds 

 are referable to the Candian Ruffed Grouse, a subspecies not 

 generally recognized at the time when the earlier writers re- 

 ferred our birds to the typical form. The true Ruffed Grouse 

 has not yet been found in Maine and seems indeed too vaguely 

 apprehended, as the nearest place where typical birds of the 

 Ruffed Grouse are known to occur is on Cape Cod. 



Genus LAGOPUS Brisson. 



301. Lagopus lagopus (Linn.). Willow Ptarmigan. 



Plumage of male in summer : above black, thickly barred and mottled with 

 rufous and whitish ; head, neck and lower parts cinnamon rufous, barred 

 with black on sides, flanks and under tail coverts ; tail fuscous, tipped with 

 white ; belly white. Plumage of adult female in summer : differs chiefly in 

 having broader bars above and below. Plumage of winter adults: pure 

 white except outer tail feathers which are fuscous, tipped with white. Wing 

 7.26 to 7.75 ; bill from nostril 0.45. 



Geog. Dist. — Arctic regions, mainly north of 55°, south to Sitka and the 

 British Provinces ; straggler to Kenduskeag, Maine, and Essex County, Mass. 



County Records. — Penobscot ; one was shot at Kenduskeag, April 23, 1892, 

 (Merrill, Auk. 9, p. 300). 



This species is purely accidental in Maine, and it is indeed 

 very hard to explain what brought a bird of the north to this 

 State. In their northern homes they are said to lead a some- 

 what wandering existence at most seasons of the year, some- 

 times wintering in large flocks in the thickets of dwarf shrubs 

 along the rivers and lakes. 



Their food consists of various buds in winter, and in summer 

 they eat insects, grass, tender shoots and leaves and various 

 fruits and berries in season. Mr. Nelson is quoted by Major 

 Bendire as stating that in Alaska near the mouth of the Yukon 

 the habits of these birds are about as follows. In April or 

 early May the male birds begin to utter their hoarse love notes. 



