LAGOPUS ALBUS : WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 145 



FAMILY TETRAONID^: GROUSE. 



WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 



LAGOPUS ALBUS (Gm.) And. 



Chars. Legs feathered to the claws. In winter, pure white, tail 

 black, two middle feathers excepted ; bill black. Summer, the 

 foreparts rich chestnut or orange-brown, variegated with black- 

 ish, the upper parts and sides barred with blackish, tawny and 

 white; most other parts white. Length, 15.00; extent, 24.00; 

 wing, 7.75; tail, 5.10. 



The New England record of the Ptarmigan is not free 

 from suspicion, and we allow the species a place with 

 some misgiving. It doubtless occurs, however, in 

 Northern Maine, as it certainly does in Lewis County, 

 N. Y. Prof. Verrill says : " Northern Maine, in winter, 

 rare"(Pr. Essex Inst, iii, 1862, p. 157). The Massa- 

 chusetts (Manchester, Essex Co., May, 1859) specimen, 

 recorded by Dr. Coues (ibid., v, 1868, p. 289) as extant 

 in the Museum of the Essex Institute, was supposed to 

 have been brought alive from Labrador and escaped, 

 as stated in that connection. Mr. G. A. Boardman, of 

 Calais, Me., to whom we wrote for information, assures 

 us that he has been unable to satisfy himself that the 

 Ptarmigan has ever been known to occur in New Eng- 

 land. With this explanation, which we trust will not 

 leave us liable to the charge of improperly augmenting 

 our list of New England birds, and calling special atten- 

 tion to the insufficiency of the accredited records, we 

 introduce the species hypothetically. 



