Fig. 13. White-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus I. leucurus). Male and female in winter plumage. Reproduction of a 

 drawing made by the author. Sexes alike. 



Length from thirteen to fourteen and 

 three-quarter inches. 



When the summer plumage is complete, 

 the sexes are, in the main, alike again. 

 Apart from the wings and tail it is barred 

 with dusky brown and ochre in coarse, wavy 

 markings, being blotched on the dorsum. 

 Males, beneath, white. 



This bird gets its specific name from the 

 Latin rupis, a rock, rupestrine, -hence ru- 

 pestris. 



Coues, who seemed to fail to appreciate 

 the subspecific and constant characters of 

 some of the American ptarmigans, says, 

 when speaking of the range of the rock 

 ptarmigan, "supposed not to occur from 

 N. Labrador northward, that region being 

 prudently reserved for L. r. reinhardti; 

 allowed on those Aleutian Islands which are 

 not reserved by the classifiers for some other 

 Rock Ptarmigan." Coues was never in the 

 parts of the country of which he speaks, 

 while the ptarmigan of the last A. O. U. 

 "Check-List" have been accepted every- 

 where in the world, and compared by a great 

 many expert ornithologists. Even Coues 

 himself in his "Key" admits Reinhardt's, 

 Nelson's, Turner's, Townsend's, Welch's and 

 Evermann's ptarmigans! 



Fig. 12, illustrating the present Part, 

 gives a male Nelson's ptarmigan in full 

 spring plumage. This figure appears as 

 Plate X. in the government work entitled 

 "Report upon Natural History Collections 

 made in Alaska between the years 1877 and 

 1881 by Edward W. Nelson" (Washington, 

 D. C., 1887), from which I photographically 

 copied it. That excellent report contains 

 detailed descriptions of the habits and vari- 

 ous plumage changes, at all seasons, of the 

 willow ptarmigan, the rock ptarmigan, Nel- 

 son's and Turner's ptarmigan. Another 

 government report (1886), "Contributions 

 to the Natural History of Alaska," by L. M. 

 Turner, gives additional information on these 

 three grouse with colored Plates (III. and 

 IV.), of the male and female of Turner's 

 ptarmigan. 



Reinhardt's rock ptarmigan agrees with 

 the rock ptarmigan; but the male of the 

 former in summer is "less regularly and more 

 finely barred above on a grayish brown 

 ground." (Coues). 



Female Nelson ptarmigans cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from true rupestris; the males in 

 summer have the plumage above finely 

 vermiculated with black on a deep umber- 

 brown ground, while the lower parts are the 



