32 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family TETEAONLIXE. Genus LAGOPUS. 



PTARMIGAN. 



LAGOPUS MUTUS. Montin. 

 PLATE V. 



Tetrao mutus, Montin, Phys. Salsk. Hand. i. p. 155 (1776-86); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. 

 B. ii. p. 424 (1884); Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 271, pi. 59 (1896). 



Lagopus cinereus, Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 187 (1837). 



Lagopus mutus (Montin), Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 157, pis. 477, 478 (1874) ; Yarrell, 

 Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 83 (1883); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. iii. (1888); Dixon, 

 Nests and Eggs, Brit. B. p. 364 (1893); Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 44 (1893); 

 Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iv. p. 271 (1897). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Ptarmigan is an inhabitant 

 of Scotland, principally the Highlands, extending to the Outer Hebrides, and 

 the mountains as far south as Arran, but is absent from the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands. Foreign: Circumpolar. The Ptarmigan, in one of its several forms, 

 inhabits the moors and tundras above the limit of forest growth of Europe, Asia, 

 and America, and is found in certain localities further south at high elevations 

 where a similar climate and conditions prevail. It frequents the Dovre-fjeld, the 

 Pyrenees, the Alps, the Urals, the mountains of South Siberia, Japan, and the 

 Kurile Islands. It also inhabits Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla. On the 

 American Continent it frequents the Eocky Mountains south to lat. 55. 



Allied forms. Lagopus leucurus, an inhabitant of the Eocky Mountains 

 and their western spurs in British Columbia and Washington territory. Differs 

 from the Ptarmigan in having the tail white at all seasons. L. mutus var. 

 hyperboreus, an inhabitant of Spitzbergen, is perhaps subspecifically distinct, 

 owing to its larger size (length of wing, 8'9 to 8'6 inches, against 7'9 to 7'2 inches 

 in the typical form) and greater amount of white on the basal portion of the tail 

 feathers. The Ptarmigan inhabiting Iceland and the regions north of the Arctic 

 circle in both hemispheres have been called L. mutus, var. rupestris, in consequence 

 of their wanting the dark breast which characterises examples from more southern 

 latitudes. Professor D. G. Elliot has described a new species of Ptarmigan from 

 Attu Island, one of the Aleutian Chain, under the name of Lagopus eversmanni, 

 " distinguished from all the Ptarmigans of the western hemisphere by its entire 

 white and black plumage." He has also described a new subspecies from Kyska 



