TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



Jfoita ^rnttau 3uslttut^ of Srirnr^ 



SESSIONS OF 1922-1923 



(\ OL. XVI Part 1) 



Accidental Occurence in Nova Scotia of the Rock Ptar- 

 migan {Lagopus rupestris welchi or L. rupestris rupestris) ; 

 wiin Remarks on the Status of L. welchi as a Specific 

 Name. — By Harry Piers, Curator of the Provincial Mus- 

 eum of Nova Scotia, Halifax. 



(Read 8 January, 1923) 



Hitherto none of the Ptarmigans has ever been taken in 

 Nova Scotia, that province being far to the south of their 

 normal range. William Brewster found the stout-billed Willow 

 Ptarmigan {Lagopus lagopus lagopus, L.inn.), Vv'ith a chick about 

 ten days old, on the 10th July, 1881, near Fox Bay (lat. 49° 

 12'), Anticosti Island, where it is reported to be plentiful,* that 

 island being the most southerly extension of its normal range 

 in easternmost Canada. It has occurred accidentally at Bangor, 

 Maine, in Essex County, Massachusetts, and in northern New 

 York, and once in New Brunswick. This Ptarmigan is more 

 southern in its range and less elevated in. its habitat than the 

 Rock Ptarmigan {L. rupestris rupestris, Gmelin) and therefore 

 more likely to occur here, with the exception perhaps of the 

 insular races of each of these two species, Allen's Ptarmigan 

 (Z,. lagopus alleni, Stejneger) and Welch's Ptarmigan {L. welchi, 

 Brewster), both of which are confined to Newfoundland. 



Specimen taken at Elmsdale, Nova Scotia, 1922. — On 20th 

 April, 1922, Malcolm Lucas, a twelve-year-old lad, who lives 

 on his father's, C. A. Lucas, farm on the northwest side of the 



* Brewster, W., Birds observed during a Summer Cruise on Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 Proc. Bost. See. N.it. Hist., 22, p. .^S3, 1883. 



(0 



