PTARMIGANS. 187 



as far south as Newfoundlaud on the eastern coast. 

 It has been traced as far north as man has yet jDene- 

 trated, in Alaska, and tlie probabihty is that its range 

 extends far within the Arctic Circle. It bears such a 

 close resemblance to the L. mutus of Europe, that it 

 would be exceedingly difficult to tell them apart in win- 

 ter, there being no specific difference between them; but 

 in summer and autumn the latter is the more grayish of 

 of the two. The rock ptarmigan is smaller than the 

 willow grouse, and has a more slender and elongated 

 bill. An adult male attains a length of about fourteen 

 and a half inches, and a weight of two pounds, but 

 the female seldom weighs more than a pound and a half. 

 The summer plumage is blackisli, striped with narrow 

 transverse bars of yellowish -brown, tipped with white; 

 the chin is whitish, spotted with black; the Avings, ex- 

 cept the middle coverts and tertials, are white; and the 

 middle of the abdomen and the outer web of the external 

 tail feathers are of the same hue. The Alaskan species 

 differs from this in being of a more chestnut hue, mot- 

 tled with black, and having little or no white edging. A 

 black stripe runs through and behind the eye of the male 

 at all seasons, but it is absent m the female. The jolum- 

 age in winter is pure wdiite, e:scept the fourteen tail 

 feathers, which are black, tipped with white. In this 

 season the female differs but little in color from the male, 

 but in summer her legs and wings, except the upper 

 coverts, are wdiite. The tail, excluding the four middle 

 feathers, is black, tipped with Avhite, the remainder of 

 the plumage being ochreous, tipped in parts with white. 

 All are marked with broad, transverse bars of black, 

 especially the back, but the buff bars beneath are wider 

 than the black. This species, like the willow grouse, is 

 partially migratory. It retires into the thickets of the 

 interior late in the autumn, and remains there until the 

 following spring, when it moves north again until it 



