iSSs] Brewster on the Rock Ptarmigan of Newfoundland. IQS 



i; Of all the specimens In the National Museum no American 

 ones show even an approximation toward these. The nearest 

 approach is the female of the Greenland and Cumberland Gulf 

 form, reinhardtii, but the gray is even less tinged with yel- 

 lowish than in the latter. Nearer in color come our specimens 

 of the European mutus and its forms, but not even the Scandi- 

 navian specimens have so much gray in their early plumage, the 

 Newfoundland bird being darker ; besides, the amount of white 

 at the base of the external rectrices is also very small. This 

 character is of rather small account because of its variability 

 (according to age?), but I have found that on an average it may 

 be regarded as of some value in large series. From both Euro- 

 pean forms— showing that it belongs to the rufiestris type — the 

 Newfoundland bird may be easily distinguished in the pre- 

 asstival plumage by the dense barring on the praepectus. With 

 the Pacific Island forms it hardly needs comparison. It lacks 

 the pure vermiculation of both athkensis and nelsoiti in the corre- 

 sponding plumage, while the latter and' ridgwayi are the direct 

 opposites of the Newfoundland birds as far as general color is 

 concerned, they being the two extremes on the color-scale, 

 ridgwayi being deep umber-brown — nearly black — without 

 traces of gray. 



"I therefore conclude that your Newfoundland rupestris is 

 distinct, and, judging from the material, comparatively very 

 strongly so. Should the characters prove as stable as they have 

 in rz'dgivayi, of which I have just received additional material, 

 it should undoubtedly stand as a species, and I think it is safest 

 to establish the form as a binomial until further material should 

 prove intergradation. 



lt The tendency to dark primaries, even in May, is an inter- 

 esting parallel to alleni ! " 



According to Mr. Welch these Ptarmigan are numerous in 

 Newfoundland, where they are strictly confined to the bleak 

 sides and summits of rocky hills and mountains in the interior. 

 Unlike the Willow Grouse of that island, which in winter 

 wander long distances, and frequently cross the Gulf to Labra- 

 dor, the Rock Ptarmigan are very local, and for the most part 

 spend their lives on or near the hills where thev are reared. 



