.1. XIII"] 



i8 9 6 J 



Elliot, New Ptarmigans from Alaska. 2 7 



on the other parts, with black blotches on the head, neck, upper part of 

 back and wings; feathers of back, rump and wings tipped with white. 

 Some of these white tips are finely spotted with black, giving them a 

 gray appearance. The outer secondaries, tertials, and most of the wing- 

 coverts and primaries, pure white, the last having black shafts. The 

 long upper tail-coverts are marked and colored like the back, with white 

 tips. Tail clove brown, nearly black, the feathers tipped with white, 

 broadest on the median, decreasing towards the outer ones, where it is 

 either hardly perceptible or absent altogether. Throat white, mixed with 

 a few colored feathers. Breast, sides of neck, and Hanks ochraceous, 

 barred with black, the bars broader and more conspicuous on neck. 

 Abdomen and belly white. Under tail-coverts mummy brown barred 

 with black. Loral space and ring around the eve black, and a scarlet 

 comb above the eye. Sides of neck of a slightly paler hue than back or 

 breast. Total length, 1370 inches; wing, 7.50; tail, 4.00; tarsus, 1.50; 

 exposed culmen, .50. 



Adult female, Kyska, 8th June, 1894, Nat. Mus. No. 135,635, type. — Entire 

 upper parts, including scapulars, tertials and upper tail-coverts ochraceous 

 blotched and barred with black, most of the feathers tipped with white, 

 except those on hind neck which are tipped with ochraceous. Tail square, 

 clove brown, the four median feathers tipped with white. Secondaries, 

 wing-coverts, and primaries white with black shafts, except those of inner 

 secondaries which are white. Throat white. Breast, sides of body, and 

 under tail-coverts ochraceous buff, lighter than the back, and broadly 

 barred with black. Center of breast, abdomen, and belly pure white. 

 Thighs and tarsus covered with white feathers. Bill and claws black. 

 Total length, 12.50 inches; wing, 6.90; tail, 440; tarsus, 1.20; exposed 

 culmen. .50. 



Adult male, Adak Island, 4th July, 1S93, Nat. Mus. No. 131,874. — Upper 

 parts grayish wood-brown finely vermiculated with black, and having 

 occasional black blotches, with generally subapical narrow black bars on 

 the feathers, and white tips. The head and hind neck are more of a 

 fulvous hue, and the black bars are very narrow. The breast is fulvous 

 finely vermiculated with black, and with narrow black bars, the tips of 

 the feathers being usually buff. The general appearance of the males in 

 this month is more grayish with finer black lines and vermiculations. 



Adult female, Adak, 4th July, 1893, Nat. Mus. No. 131,878. — There is 

 not much difference upon the back of the female in this month, except 

 there is apparently more ochraceous on the tips of the feathers in the 

 median line and on the rump, with a tendency to grayish on the scapu- 

 lary region. The under parts differ in being uniformly rich buff with 

 much narrower black bars than is seen in the June birds, and with the 

 exception of an occasional white feather in the abdominal region, there 

 is no white anywhere. This seems to be the full summer dress, and at 

 once attracts the attention of the observer by the narrowness of the black 

 lines and absence of while. 



