RARER BRITISH BIRDS. 25 



ROCK GROUSE. 



Lagopus Rupestris. GMELIN. 



THIS bird, although there is no doubt that it has been in- 

 digenous in this country perhaps for ages, has not been noticed 

 until lately, having been confounded with the Ptarmigan, which 

 it very much resembles, particularly in its winter plumage. 

 Pennant, in his " Arctic Zoology," was the first naturalist who 

 recognised the bird before us as distinct. His opinion was 

 chiefly founded on a communication from Mr. Hutchins. 



It appears to be one of those birds which are found both 

 in the American and European Continents ; not being uncommon 

 in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, in Norway, Sweden, 

 Greenland, France, and Italy ; and was found by Captain 

 Sabine in Melville Island. Although it is to Pennant that we 

 owe the elevation of this bird to a species, it is to Captain 

 Sabine that the honour of having first enrolled it in our indi- 

 genous lists belongs. He discovered it in the Highlands of 

 Scotland, where probably many have before been killed by the 

 sportsman without notice. 



The principal differences between the Rock Grouse and the 

 Ptarmigan exist in the summer plumage and in the size, the 

 Rock Ptarmigan being rather the smallest. In the summer 

 plumage they appear to differ principally, according to Captain 

 Sabine, in the upper plumage of the Ptarmigan being cinereous, 

 with undulating and narrow black lines and minute spots ; while 

 in the Rock Grouse each feather is black, cut by transverse 

 broad lines or bars of a reddish yellow, which do not reach 

 the shaft, and have spaces between them broader than them- 

 selves ; the feathers are tipped in the male with a light colour, 

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