178 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAK 



Lagopus leucurus. SWAINSON & RICHARDSON. 



jABITS. This species was first procured by Mr. 

 Drummond, and described by Swainson in the 

 "Fauna Borealis." Five specimens were taken on 

 the Rocky Mountains in the 54th parallel, and ano- 

 ther, by Mr. Mac Pherson, on the same chain, nine degrees 

 farther north. They were said to have all the habits of 

 the other Ptarmigans, and to inhabit the snowy peaks near 

 the mouth of the Columbia, as well as the lofty ridges of 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



We have but little reliable information in regard to the 

 habits and distribution of this species. It seems to be con- 

 fined entirely to the range of the Rocky Mountains, and 

 to be found only among their highest points, occurring at 

 least as far to the south as Cochetope Pass, in latitude 39, 

 and extending north to an undetermined extent. Speci- 

 mens were procured in 1858 by Captain R. B. Marcy, on 

 his march from Fort Bridger, in Utah, across the Rocky 

 Mountains to Santa Fe. They were met with near the 

 summit of the mountains not far from Cochetope Pass. 



Mr. Charles E. Aiken writes me that he has been in- 

 formed that this bird is common on the Snowy Range, in 

 Colorado Territory. He was informed by an old miner, 

 who. claimed to have met with these birds breeding near 

 the top of the range in June, that their nest, composed of 

 leaves' and grass, is placed on the ground among bushes on 

 hill sides; that the eggs are fourteen in number, of a light 

 bluish-brown, marked and spotted with a darker shade of 

 brown. 



Mr. J. A. Allen (Am. Nat., June, 1872), mentions finding, 

 among the snow-fields of the higher parts of the moun- 

 tains of Colorado, this Grouse as one of the essentially 

 Arctic species that were not met with below the region of 



