Vol ; 8 X 6 m l Elliot, New Ptarmigans from Alaska. 25 



Lagopus evermanni, sp. nov. 



Habitat, Attu Island. 



Adult male, Attu Island, 4th June, 1894. — Forehead white. Top of 

 head and back of neck black, finely barred with tawny. Loral space, 

 breast and entire upper parts, tertials, innermost secondaries, and upper 

 tail-coverts black, with faint vermiculations of russet on rump, upper tail- 

 coverts and edges of tertials. Sides of face black and white mixed. 

 Comb over eye, scarlet. White feathers of the winter dress are inter- 

 spersed among the feathers of the back and upper part of the breast. 

 Most of wing-coverts, secondaries, and entire primaries pure white, with 

 the shafts of primaries pale brown. Tail clove brown, almost black, with 

 narrow white tips to the feathers. Entire under parts, including under 

 tail-coverts, pure white. Bill and claws, black. Total length, 13.90 

 inches; wing, 7.50; tail, 5.30; tarsus, 1.30; exposed culmen, .50. 



This specimen is not in complete summer dress, as is shown by the few 

 remaining white feathers, scattered among the black ones, and also by the 

 white forehead. These feathers would undoubtedly give place to others 

 colored like those of the adjoining parts. 



Adult female, Attu, 2Sth May, 1892. — Entire plumage of body ochra- 

 ceous, palest on the throat, blotched and barred on the back with black 

 and the feathers with white tips, while the feathers of rump and upper 

 tail-coverts have ochraceous tips. On the breast and flanks the black 

 blotches are much fewer but the black bars are broader, and there are no 

 white tips on the breast feathers, but those on the abdomen and some on 

 the flanks are broadly tipped with white. Under tail-coverts ochraceous 

 barred with black. The tertials, inner secondaries and some of the greater 

 wing-coverts ochraceous like the back, barred and tipped with white; 

 remainder of wing and primaries pure white with the shafts of the latter 

 pale brown. Bill and claws black. Total length, 12.80 inches ; wing, 6.60; 

 tail, 4.90; tarsus, 1.30; exposed culmen, .60. 



Seven specimens, five males and two females, from Attu, one 

 of the Near Island Group, brought by Prof. B. W. Evermann, 

 Mr. C. H. Townsend, and Dr. S. I. Call, are all the representa- 

 tives of this new species yet obtained. Of the Rock Ptarmi- 

 gans of the Northwest, L. evermanni is apparently nearest allied 

 to L. rupestris nelsoni of Unalaska and the Shumagin Islands, 

 but is distinguished at once from all the Ptarmigans of the 

 Western Hemisphere by its entire black and white plumage, 

 exhibiting a strong contrast to L. r. nelsoni with its russet color- 

 ation. The female, while having a general resemblance to that 

 of L. r. nelsoni, which is to be expected, as the females of most 

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