3fifif PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1772, 



14. Tridactylus. 177. 2J. Three-toed woodpecker. Faun. Am. Sept. Se- 

 vern river, N° 8. 



A female, weight 1 ounces, length 8 inches, breadth 13; eyes dark blue, 

 legs black. It builds its nest in trees, lives in woods upon worms picked out of 

 trees, is not very common at Severn river. The descriptions answer. 



III. Gallinse, gallinaceous. Faun. Am. Sept. 



6. Tetrao, grous. 15 Canadensis, 274. 3. Canaca, 275. 7. Faun. Am. 

 Sept. 10, Spotted grous. Gelinotte du Canada, male et femelle, PI. enl. 131 

 at 132. BufFon Oiseaux ii. p. 27g, 4to. Brisson i. p. 203. t. 20. f. 1, 2, and 

 p. 201. app. 10. Edwards, t. 118 and 71- Severn river, N° 5 . Woodpartridge. 



These birds are all the year long at Hudson's Bay, and never change the co- 

 lour of their plumage. The accounts from Hudson's Bay say, there is no ma- 

 terial difference between the male and female; which must be a mistake, as they 

 are really very different. Linnaeus's descriptions of the tetrao canadensis, and 

 canace, both answer to the specimens sent over, so that after comparing them, 

 Mn F. finds they are only one and the same species. He supposes the dividing them 

 into two was occasioned by Brisson's and Edwards's description, being taken from 

 specimens sent from different parts of the continent of America, and perhaps 

 caught at different seasons. Mr. de Buffon has the same opinion, and by com- 

 paring the drawings of Edwards, with those of the planches enluminees, it is 

 put beyond a doubt. These birds are very stupid, may be knocked down with 

 a stick, and are frequently caught by the natives with a stick and a loop. In 

 summer they are good eating; but in winter they taste strongly of the pine 

 spruce, on which they feed during that season, eating berries in summer. They 

 live in pine woods, their nests are on the ground ; they generally lay but 5 eggs. 



Tetrao, l6. Lagopus, 274. 4. White grous. Faun. Am. Sept. 10. Ptar- 

 migan. Br. Zool. Lagopede de la Bay e de Hudson. Buffon Oiseaux ii. p. 276. 

 Edw. t. 72. Severn river, N° 1 — 4. Willow partridges. 



The Hudson's Bay ptarmigan has been separated from the European in the 

 British Zoology, and afterwards by M. de Buftbn : however Mr. F. cannot yet 

 find the differences which they assign to these species. They contend that the 

 Hudson's Bay bird, figured by Edwards, is twice as liirge as the European ptar- 

 migan; Mr. Edwards does not intimate this, when he says, the bird is of a middle 

 size, between partridge and pheasant; he on the contrary supposes them to be 

 the same species. The British Zoology, after Willoughby, says, the ptarmigan's 

 length is 134 inches. The account from Severn river says it is i6j- inches. 

 The breadth in the British Zoology is said to be 23 inches. Willoughby's ptar- 

 migan weighed 14 ounces; that in the British Zool. illustr. t. 13. 19 ounces; 

 that from the Hudson's Bay (14- lb.) 24 ounces. These differences are of little 



