Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 503 



Tetrao alpinus, pt., Torell, p. 51. Lagopus hyperborea, Malmgren, 

 1863, p. 100. " Lagopus alpinus, v. hyperboreus, Sundevall/' 

 Id., 1864, p. 379. 



Whether this bird be specifically distinct from the Ptarmigans 

 of Iceland, Greenland, and Arctic America is a question that I 

 will not, in the absence of sufficient materials, attempt to decide. 

 The Ptarmigans from those countries are probably identical; 

 and if so, the specific name rupesti^is, as being the oldest, should 

 be applied to them. I am, however, very confident that the 

 present bird resembles them more closely than it does that of 

 Europe proper. I do not attribute much importance to the 

 larger size of the hyperborean bird, or even to its eponymic 

 character — the having the rectrices partly white ; but the breast 

 of the male (so far as I can judge from the specimen of that 

 sex which was kindly shown me by Dr. Malmgren, and since 

 described at length by him, and also from Herr von Wright's 

 figure in the Atlas of the French Expedition) does not seem to 

 have any of the entirely black feathers which are so distinctive 

 of the real L. mutus. It is true that the last-named bird in 

 Scotland never appears to assume the perfectly sable breast 

 which is sometimes reached by the Norwegian " Fjall-rype," such 

 as is so beautifully represented by Mr. Wolf in Mr. Gould's 

 ' Birds of Great Britain / but Scotch birds killed at the proper 

 time of year invariably, so far as T know, have some entirely 

 black feathers on the breast, while specimens obtained at the 

 corresponding season from North America, Greenland, Iceland, 

 and I believe I may now add Spitsbergen, have not a single 

 coloured feather which is not mottled with ashy-brown. 



The Ptarmigan in Spitsbergen is not a common bird, though it 

 has been met with in several localities on the north and west 

 coasts. Marten found his " Ice-bird " (if that is to be referred 

 to this species) on the shore of English Bay, where Lord Duf- 

 ferin {' Letters from High Latitudes,' p. 316) subsequently men- 

 tions his having met with " two or three dozen " and killing 

 sixteen. Parry's party found it in Hecla Cove. Professor 

 Sundevall, who accompanied the Fi*ench Expedition of 1838, 

 obtained the example which v/as the subject of Herr von Wright's 

 figure, and is now in the Stockholm Museum, in Bell Sound, 



