20 HISTORY OF 



sessed of the specimen, through the kindness of the Rev. John 

 Sandford, who was a resident near the place at the time it was 

 killed. When I saw it, all doubt of what it really was vanished ; 

 and I had the pleasure of placing the first British specimen of 

 Tetrao Rupestris in the collection of my friend the Earl of Derby, 

 then Lord Stanley," (to whom we are indebted for being able to 

 give a cut of the bird.) " My speculation was, that the bird 

 had been driven to our island, by some accident, from Norway; 

 and I should have continued to hold this opinion to be correct, 

 but that I observed, in the Report of the British Association, 

 page 611, in a ' Catalogue of Birds observed in Sutherlandshire,' 

 in June 1834, by P. J. Selby, Esq. that there is in No. 51 an 

 account of L. Rupestris killed on the Benmore range." 



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, 

 which in the female approaches to white. In the winter plumage, 

 except in size, the resemblance is still more near; the Rock 

 Grouse being of a snowy white, with the exception of the six 

 larger quills which are black, and the tail feathers, which (with 

 the exception of the two lateral ones which are white) are 

 also black, slightly tipped with white in the male ; a black 

 stripe passes from the nostrils, through the eye, to the back 

 of the head. 



