PTAKMIGAN. 381 



white ; the male has no black feathers before or behind the 

 eye : it is further distinguished from our Ptarmigan by its 

 larger size, and much stouter beak. In summer both sexes 

 assume a reddish yellow plumage, somewhat resembling 

 that of the Red Grouse, the quill -feathers and part of the 

 under surface of the body remaining white ; the claws 

 black at the base, white at the end. The male measures 

 seventeen inches in length : the wing eight inches and one 

 quarter. The female measures sixteen inches, and her 

 wing eight inches. This species is abundant in the coun- 

 tries about Hudson's Bay, where ten thousand have been 

 taken in one winter. A coloured figure of this bird in its 

 summer plumage will be found at page 72 of Edwards' 

 Gleanings in Natural History, and in Mr. Gould's Birds 

 of Europe. 



Mr. Lloyd says that M. Nilsson considers the Scandina- 

 vian Fyall-ripa, identical with our Ptarmigan, to be the 

 same bird described by Faber as common to Iceland; 

 but with two specimens of the Iceland bird obtained 

 from Mr. Procter of the Durham Museum, who brought 

 them from Iceland himself, I am induced to think Faber 

 was correct in considering the Ptarmigan of Iceland dis- 

 tinct, and naming it accordingly Islandorum. Both the 

 specimens were males, one in winter plumage, the other 

 killed in spring, and exhibiting a portion of the plumage 

 of summer. Both these birds had black feathers before 

 and behind the eye, and by this mark were distinguished 

 from the Willow Bird ; both these birds measured seven- 

 teen inches in length, and were therefore as large as the 

 largest males of the Willow Bird ; the beak was equally 

 bulky, and the colour of the summer plumage in the 

 spring-killed specimen, as far as at present obtained, does 

 not agree with that of either the male or female of our 

 Lag opus mutus. 



