BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



375 



"Willow ptarmigan. Lagopus lagopus (Linnaeus). Specimen in winter plumage. American Museum of Natural History. 



I nat. size 



Lagopus lagopus (Linnaeus) 

 Willow Ptarmigan 



Tetrao lagopus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. lo. 1758. 1:159 

 Lagopus lagopus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 301 



lago'pus, Gr. Anyoiirovs, Lat., lagopus, harefoot 



Description. Feet completely feathered. Winter: Pure white with 

 black tail. Summer, male: Head, neck and upper parts rich chestnut 

 or rufous, more or less barred with blackish ; wings and under parts largely 

 white. Spring and fall: Showing various stages of pied plumage. Female: 

 Lighter colored than summer male, more heavily barred, only the wings white. 



Length 15-17 inches; wing 7.5-8; tail 5.5. 



The Common or Willow ptarmigan is circumpolar in distribution, 

 breeding in the arctic regions and wandering irregularh' south in winter, 

 in eastern America rarely to Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois. 

 The only New York specimen known was obtained May 22, 1876, by Romeyn 

 B. Hough at Watson in Lewis county, [see Coues, N. O. C. Bui. 3:41], 



