ON THE BREEDING-HABITS, NEST, AND EGGS, OF 

 THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN (LAGOPUS LED- 



CURUS). 



By Bn. Elliott Coues, U. S. Army. 



Very little haviug been placed on record respecting the breeding- 

 habits, nest, and eggs of Lagoims leucurus^ the present occasion is taken 

 to bring together the information we possess on the subject, and supple- 

 ment it with a more precise account, the result of an examination of a 

 set of eggs which, with the nest, were collected during the summer of 

 1875 by one of Dr. Ilayden's parties, and submitted to my inspection. 



The White-tailed Ptarmigan is interesting as the southernmost species 

 of the genus Lagoims^ and the only one of any considerable latitudinal 

 dispersion in the United States. The Willow Ptarmigan {L. albus) is 

 indeed recorded from some points along our northern frontier, but even 

 there its occurrence has only been noted in winter. L. leucurus alone 

 breeds within the United States (exclusive of Alaska). It is one of the 

 later additions to the genus, having remained unknown to naturalists 

 up to the year 1831, when it was described and figured by Swainson and 

 Eichardson in the second volume of the Fauna Boreali-Americana (p. 356, 

 pi. 63), from six specimens procured by Mr. Drummond and Mr. Mac- 

 pherson in the Eocky Mountains, latitude 51° to 63° north. Mr. David 

 Douglas had killed several in 1827, but these were destroyed. It is only 

 within the last few years that we have become fairly well acquainted 

 with the bird. The species is readily distinguished from its allies by the 

 chararcter implied in the name; the tail-feathers being pure white, like 

 the rest of the plumage in winter. 



Its known range in the United States has lately been extended to lat- 

 itude 37° north ; tlie species having been found at Cantonment Burgwyn, 

 New Mexico, by Dr. B. J. D. Irwin, United States Army.* In longitud- 

 inal distribution, it is confined to the Eocky Mountains and some other 

 high ranges in the West. 



The earliest account of the nest or eggs which I have at hand is that 

 given by Mr. C. E. Aiken, t who states that the bird is said to be common 

 on the Snowy Eange of Colorado Territory, and who describes the nest, 

 upon the authority of a miner, as composed of leaves and grass, upon' 

 the ground, among bushes. The eggs in this case were said to have 

 been fourteen in number, and "light bluish-brown, spotted with dark- 

 brown," in color. 



The first egg known to me to hav^e been examined by a naturalist was 

 an imperfect one taken by Mr. A. G. Mead, who procured it on Mount 

 Lincoln, Colorado Territory, and by hiui presented to Mr. J. A. Allen, 

 who kindly furnished me a short description, which I published in the 

 account of the species given in the "Birds of the ISiorthwest" (p. 426). 

 According to Mr. Allen, it was "thickly sprinkled with small, bright 



* Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1866, p. 94. 

 + Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, xv, 1872, p. 209. 



