VOL. LXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 335 



consequence, and far from increasing the Hudson's Bay bird to double the size 

 of the European. The British Zoology says there is a difference in the summer 

 colours; but Mr. Edwards informs us, tiiat he compared the Hudson's Bay bird 

 with the descriptions cf former ornithologists, and found them to answer; he 

 likewise assures us he had the same bird from Norway. Therefore Mr. F. can- 

 not help dissenting from the British Zoology, in this one particular, and think- 

 ing, with Linnaeus and Brisson, that the European and Hudson's Bay ptarmigans 

 are the same, especially as the colours vary very much in the difierent sexes and 

 at different seasons. To this may be added the testimony of a gentleman well 

 versed in natural history, who, having had opportunities of comparing numbers 

 of Hudson's Bay and European ptarmigans, assured him that he did not see any 

 difference between them. They go together in great flocks in the beginning of 

 October, living among the willows, of which they eat the tops, whence they 

 have got the name of willow partridges : about that time they lose their beautiful 

 sunjnier plumage, and exchange it for a snowy white dress, most providently 

 adapted by its thickness to screen them against the severity of the season, and 

 by its colour against their enemies the hawks and owls, against whose attacks 

 they would otherwise find no shelter. Each feather is double, that is, a short 

 one under a long one, to keep them warm. In the latter end of March, they 

 begin again to change their plumage, and have got their full summer dress by 

 the end of June. They breed every where along the coast, and have from Q to 

 1 1 young at a time ; making their nests on the ground, generally on dry ridges. 

 They are excellent eating, and so plentiful that ten thousand have been taken at 

 Severn, York, and Churchill Forts. The method of netting or catching them, 

 is as follows: a net made of jack twine, 20 feet square, is laced to 4 long poles, 

 and supported in front with the sticks, in a perpendicular situation; a long line 

 is fastened to these supports, one end of it reaching to a place where a person 

 lies concealed ; several men drive the ptarmigans (which are as tame as chickens, 

 especially on a mild snowy day), towards the net, which they run to as soon as 

 they see it. The person concealed draws the line, by which means the net falls 

 down, and catches 50 or 70 ptarmigans at once. They are sometimes rather 

 wild, but grow better humoured, as Mr. Graham says, by being driven about, 

 for they seldom forsake those willows which they have once frequented. 



Tetrao. 17- Togatus, 275.8. Shoulder knot grous. Grosse gelinotte du 

 Canada. PI. enl. 104. Briss. i. 207. t. 21. f. 1. Buffbn Oiseaux ii. p. 287. 

 Severn river, N°6o and 6l. Albany Fort 1 and 2. A 



This birrf answers the descriptions given of it by the ornithologists in all re- 

 spects, and perfectly resembles the figure in Brisson, and in the planches enlu- 

 minees. It differs from Edwards's ruffed heathcock, t. 248, or Linnaeus's tetrao 

 umbellus, as the latter has not the shining black axillar feathers, or shoulder- 



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