PTARMIGAN. 



369 



summer. Both these birds have black feathers before and 

 behind the eye, and by this mark are distinguished from 

 the Willow Bird ; both these birds measure seventeen 

 inches in length, and are therefore as large as the largest 

 males of the Willow Bird ; the beak is equally bulky, and 

 the colour of the summer plumage in the spring-killed speci- 

 men, as far as at present obtained, does not agree with that 

 of either the male or female of our Lagopus mutus. 



I believe, with M. Temminck and Mr. Henry Double- 

 day, that the Ptarmigan figured by Mr. Gould and Mr. 

 Eyton under the name of rupestris, is only the female of 

 our common Ptarmigan in her summer plumage. 



In our three representations of the Ptarmigan, at the 

 head of this subject, the lower figure is taken from a female 

 killed in the month of May, the upper figure from a male 

 killed in October, and the middle figure from a male bird 

 killed in January. 



VOL. II. 



B B 



