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THE ROCK PTARMIGAN. 



T&gopus rupestris. SABINE AND RICHARDSON. 

 PLATE II. 



THE British specimens of Ptarmigan, which have 

 been given as L. rupestris or Rock Ptarmigan, seem 

 now, by Mr. Yarrell, and our later ornithologists, 

 to be considered as merely seasonal or sexual varia- 

 tions of the common bird. We have not been able 

 personally to examine any of those which have been 

 described and represented as such, but at no time 

 have we been completely satisfied, even of the 

 specific value of the northern bird, and consider 

 that this, with the whole of the limited genus, 

 requires revision, to ascertain what are really dis- 

 tinct; their geographical ranges, with the changes 

 undergone by the young and old birds at different 

 seasons. In illustration of the subject, we have now 

 given a figure, taken from that represented in the 

 " European birds," by Mr. Gould, accompanied with 

 what Sabine, Richardson, and Swainson, say upon 

 the subject ; and we add a minute description and 

 measurement of a female bird, shot by ourselves 

 on Ben More, Sutherlandshire, in the month of 

 June, and which Dr. Richardson considered identi- 



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