166 



GROUSE-PTARMIGAN. 



WE now come to that section of the Grouse to 

 which the Red Grouse and Ptarmigan belong. They 

 have been separated from the others under the title 

 of Lagopus Grouse-Ptarmigan. They are even of 

 a more solitary nature than the others, inhabiting the 

 wildest muirs or most barren alpine ranges. The 

 principal generic distinction is the entirely clothed 

 feet and legs, covered with a rather rigid hair than 

 feathers, and the want of the scaling upon the sides 

 of the toes ; the hind toe short, and the claws long 

 and of a particular flat triangularly pointed form in 

 the more alpine birds, to assist in digging or bur- 

 rowing under the snow. Five species only are known, 

 natives of North America and Europe. Great Britain 

 possesses three, one of which is not known out of 

 the British Isles. It is the first we shall notice 



