692 L AGO PUS 



LAGOPUS, Briss., 1760. 

 967. WILLOW GROUSE. 

 LAGOPUS ALBUS. 



Lagopus albus (Gmel.), Syst. Nat. p. 750 (1788) ; (Nauin.), y i- P- 38 1> 

 Taf. 159 ; Dresser, vii. p. 183, pis. 483, 484 fig. 1, 485 (feet only) ; 

 Elliot, Monogr. Tetr. pis. xvii. xviii. ; Tetrao. lagopus, Linn. Syst. 

 Nat. i. p. 274 (1766) ; (Ogilvie Grant), Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. p. 40 ; 

 Kidgway, p. 199 ; L. subalpina (Nilss.), Orn. Suec. p. 307 (1817) ; 

 L. brachydactylus, Gould, B. of E. iv. pi. 256. 



Lirype Dalrype, Norweg. and Dan. ; Dalripa, Swed. ; Rievsak, 

 Lapp. ; .Riekko, Finn. ; Kprttpatka, Russ. 



$ ad. in spring (Finland). Head, neck, breast, upper flanks, and 

 upper parts rich dark red, the crown marked, and the neck, breast, and 

 back more or less vermiculated with black ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 partly white ; wings, middle tail-feathers, nostrils, region round and 

 behind the eye, a small space at the base of the lower mandible, and 

 under parts white j rest of tail -feathers blackish partially tipped with 

 white j comb above the eye red ; bill blackish horn ; iris brown. 

 Culmen 0'88, wing 8'1, tail 5'1, tarsus T7 inch. Later on in the summer 

 the white is restricted to the wings and middle of the abdomen. The 

 female is somewhat smaller and duller in colour. In the winter both 

 sexes have the whole plumage pure white except the tail, which is black 

 tipped with white. 



Hcib. Europe from Central Scandinavia to the extreme north ; 

 not found in Britain or Iceland ; Asia, north to Kamchatka, 

 south to the Amoor ; Arctic America beyond the United States ; 

 Newfoundland. 



During the spring and summer it is found in pairs, usually 

 in the tracts covered with low bushes, but in the winter large 

 flocks are often seen. It feeds on seeds of various kinds, berries, 

 and the tender shoots of the birch and willow. Its call-note is 

 similar to that of the Red Grouse, and when in the spring it struts 

 before the female the male utters a clear note, kavao kavao, which 

 the female answers with a subdued mewing note, neiau nceau. 

 When startled and taking wing the male utters a cackling note 

 like that of L. scoticus. The Willow Grouse is monogamous, and 

 the female deposits late in May, in a depression scratched under a 

 bush and scantily lined with a few grass stems or twigs, her 8 to 

 14, sometimes even more, eggs, which closely resemble those of 

 L. scoticus in size, colour, and markings. The Newfoundland 

 bird has been subspecifically separated by Dr. Stejneger under 

 the name Lagopus lagopus alleni. 



