ISO 



GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



New York, numbered 26,857 and 26,858 respectively, 

 from Humbert River, Newfoundland, collected by L. A. 

 Zerega on September 15, 1886, which are so like the 

 Fort Chimo bird described under Lagopus lagoptts that 

 the description there given will answer perfectly well for 

 them. The shafts of the secondaries in both are pure 

 white, and the shafts of primaries are a blackish brown, 

 this color extending a little upon the webs near the tips. 

 The color of the upper parts is almost identically the 

 same, but one of the Newfoundland birds has more 

 feathers tipped with grayish white, which is to be ex- 

 pected, as the specimen was killed five days later in the 

 year than the Fort Chimo bird. If there is a distinct 

 race of the Willow Grouse in Newfoundland, then the 

 specific form is also found there, and it is very unlikely 

 that birds from the same island, so closely allied, would 

 maintain recognizable characters sufficient to separate 

 them, when it is notorious that individuals even of the 

 same flock vary so greatly from each other, both in color 

 and markings, that it is practically impossible to procure 

 two exactly alike at any season of the year. When writ- 

 ing my monograph of the Tetraoninae I had a number 

 of Newfoundland birds sent to me Ly the late Professor 

 Baird, and I was unable then to discover any character 

 sufficient to separate them from other Willow Grouse, 

 and before we can accept a new race from that island 

 as an established fact I think other and better characters 

 than any yet known will have to be established. 



