468 



The Outer's Book 



sure that he has a specimen of Allen's ptar- 

 migan; or one in Atka, a Turner's ptarmigan, 

 and so on to the end of the list. It will not 

 be necessary for me, then, to give the plum- 

 ages or other differential specific characters 

 of all these birds, and I shall confine myself 

 to a few of those of more general distribu- 

 tion which may occur within the boundaries 

 of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, 

 touching very lightly upon some of the forms. 



In the winter time, in certain localities, 

 one might meet with the willow grouse or 

 ptarmigan in the northeastern part of the 

 country, but never south of northern New 

 York. It has also occurred in Minnesota. 

 (Fig. 10). The bird has several common 

 names, though it is usually called a willow 

 or a white grouse. 



As in all ptarmigans, its feet are fully 

 feathered, and there is no black stripe 

 between the bill and eye. In winter the 

 plumage is pure white with black white- 

 tipped tail which is composed of 14 feathers. 

 Several of the outer flight-feathers of the 

 wings have black shafts, those of the second- 

 aries being white. In the summer time, 

 when, the plumage of this species is not 

 white, no detailed description will answer for 

 all the plumages it assumes, as they vary 

 so with sex and age. Nevertheless, there 

 can be no trouble in identifying a willow 

 grouse in any of these stages. 



Males in the summer time have the head 

 and fore-parts of an elegant rich chestnut, 

 designated by some as an orange-brown. 

 This becomes tawny on the back, rump and 

 beyond, the whole being more or less 

 thickly barred with black. For the most 

 part, the wings and all the plumage below 

 remains white. During the spring and 

 autumn, as these changes go on, the bird 

 has a pied plumage which fits no special 

 description. Females have only the white 

 and is lighter colored than the male, the 

 black barring being more uniform, closer 

 and heavier. 



Length, 15-17 inches; wing, 7.5 to 8, and 

 tail about 5 inches. Chicks of this species 

 are truly beautiful little birds, several of 

 them being here shown in Figure 10. 



Wilson, apparently, never met with any 

 of our ptarmigan or snow grouse, and there- 

 fore does not mention them in his work. 



Audubon, who could find no differences 

 in our several forms of ruffed grouse (Part II), 

 seemed to think in fact did think that 

 our willow ptarmigan, or some other species 

 found in the Old World, were entirely differ- 

 ent birds, and consequently named ours the 

 American ptarmigan (Lagopus americanus); 

 whereas as nearly every one knew at the 

 time the birds are identical. In fact, Audu- 



bon tangled- up the rock ptarmigan, the 

 present species, and his American ptarmigan 

 in the most remarkable manner with L. 

 scoticus and L. mutus! He could not even 

 trust his own figures; for he says in Vol. V 

 of his work: "At the same time, after due 

 consideration, I am satisfied that the bird 

 figured by me is not the Common Ptarmigan, 

 although it presents all the characters of the 

 Rock Grouse or Ptarmigan. It is less than 

 the Scotch Ptarmigan, and its wings are 

 much shorter, and even more concave; and 

 in these respects it corresponded with the 

 other two specimens, [loaned him by the 

 Earl of Derby], which, however, had the 

 plumage pure white, with the exception of 

 the tail-feathers and the shafts of the prim- 

 aries. I have therefore named this bird, as 

 a species distinct from either, Lagopus Ameri- 

 canus." (Pp. 119, 120). The birds he 

 examined in the Museum of the Andersonian 

 Institution marked "Lagopus vulgaris, Ptar- 

 migan, Melville's Island," and which he 

 claimed to be his Lagopus americanus, were 

 evidently nothing of the kind, but at least 

 one of them and perhaps all -were rock 

 ptarmigans (L. rupestris rupestris), for he 

 says himself that they had a "black band 

 extending from the bill to the eye and behind 

 it," and this is a distinguishing character 

 of the rock ptarmigans, and is not found in 

 the willow grouse (Fig. 11). So far as I am 

 aware, this error has not been published 

 before, and it is pointed out here in order 

 that students of Audubon many of whom 

 believe that he never made any mistakes 

 may avoid unnecessary labor in demon- 

 strating them. 



An authority at hand says that in Allen's 

 ptarmigan "both secondaries and primaries 

 black-shafted, and these and some of the 

 coverts marked on their webs with blackish," 

 otherwise the bird is like the willow grouse. 



Coming next to the rock ptarmigan 

 (L. rupestris), (Fig. 11), with its seven sub- 

 species, we have a series of birds that do not 

 normally come within the boundaries of 

 the United States proper, and can only claim 

 places in our avifauna for the reason that 

 they all, with the exception of Reinhardt's 

 ptarmigan, occur in various parts of Alaska 

 and her off-lying islands. 



In the white winter plumage, the rock 

 ptarmigan is like the willow grouse, with the 

 above-mentioned difference that there is, in 

 the former, a black stripe from the bill 

 through the eye on either side. Rock ptar- 

 migans also have a slenderer bill than do 

 willow grouse. Sometimes the female lacks 

 the black stripe through the eye, and both 

 sexes are, respectively, smaller than the male 

 and female of lagopus. 



