OF THE ROCK PTARMIGAN PIERS 3 



Even a non-migratory bird like Welch's Ptarmigan might easily 

 be caught in a northeasterly gale and so blown across that 

 narrow strait to Cape Breton, from whence it could have wan- 

 dred southwestward, overland, to Elmsdale, a further land 

 journey of 210 miles. It is also probable that it could have 

 been borne in this direction by the drift-ice of spring setting 

 southward; in fact this is a very likely explanation of its trans- 

 port hither. Judged by the criterion of distance alone, one 

 would readily decide that our specimen must be Welch's Ptar- 

 migan of Newfoundland. 



The question of identity as affected by inigratory and non- 

 migratory habits of the two races. — Welch's Ptarmigan is practi- 

 cally a non-migratory bird, confined to a large island, and one 

 would not expect it to have any natural tendency to proceed 

 beyond its normal limits; unless, as we have said, it happened 

 to be blown off land by a heavy gale, or was carried south on 

 an ice-berg. The true Rock Ptarmigan, on the other hand, is a 

 migratory bird, which from its breeding grounds on Melville 

 Peninsula regularly migrates southward in Eastern Canada, 

 in autumn, as far as lat. 58°, or even 55° on Hudson Bay, and 

 to Hamilton Inlet. From thence, in the spring, it returns 

 northward to the Barren Grounds in the far north. The south- 

 ern migration, consisting of thousands of birds, passes Chester- 

 field Inlet, northwestern part of Hudson Bay, early in October, 

 and passes northward again in Alay {vide A. P. Low). 



This migratory characteristic, might tend to cause an in- 

 dividual, at the time of the northward spring movement, to 

 take some erratic course of flight, perhaps assisted at first by a 

 northerly gale which would drive it far out of its normal course; 

 and thus separated from its companions, it might proceed 

 overland some 750 miles, via Quebec and New Brunswick, 

 into Nova Scotia, in the latter part of April. Taking migratory 

 instinct as the basis of probability in the case, it would seem 

 more likely that our specimen would be the true Rock Ptar- 

 migan {L. riLpestris rupestris), which is endowed with instinct 

 and power for extensive migratory movements, which Welch's 

 Ptarmigan is not. 



