328 TETRAONID.E. 



muscle of the breast, as contrasted with the very wliite colour 

 of the inner muscle, and all the Grouse are considered to 

 possess fine qualities for the table by those who are partial to 

 high game flavour. 



The Ptarmigan of the mountain ridges of Norway and 

 Sweden, called the Fyall-ripa, the species named alpina by 

 M. Nilsson, is considered to be identical with our Scottish 

 Ptarmigan. Mr. Lloyd says, " The predominant colours of 

 the Fyall-ripa in the summer season are speckled black, 

 brown, or grey ; there is, however, a very great dissimilarity 

 in the dress of the male and female ; the former being of a 

 much darker colour than the latter." This agrees with the 

 descriptions of our Ptarmigan, as given by those authors who 

 have had the best opportunities of obtaining specimens of 

 these birds at different seasons of the year. 



The male in winter has the beak, the lore, and a small 

 angular patch behind the eye, black ; the irides yellowish 

 brown ; over the eye a naked red skin ; almost all the plum- 

 age pure white ; shafts of the primary quill-feathers black ; 

 the four upper tail-feathers white ; the fourteen other tail- 

 feathers black, tipped with white ; legs and toes white, the 

 claws black. The male in May and November has the beak, 

 the lore, and behind the eye, black ; over the eye a naked 

 red skin ; the throat white ; head and neck mottled with 

 blackish and speckled grey feathers, a few others with narrow 

 bars of black and ochreous yellow ; the white feathers assum- 

 ing the greyish black by a change of the colour, as particu- 

 larly observed in progress in a male bird in March, when pen 

 feathers, which were then growing, were all greyish black ; 

 the breast, back, and upper tail-feathers, nearly uniform 

 speckled grey ; the fourteen under tail-feathers black ; the 

 wings, the under surflxce of the body, and the legs white. 



The whole length of a male fifteen inches and a quarter. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, eight inches : 



