D ACCIDENTAL OCCURENCE IN NOVA SCOTIA 



Conclusion. — We thus find that Welch's Ptarmigan would 

 have had only one-third the distance to cover that the Rock 

 Ptarmigan would have had; but the former lacks the strong 

 migratory instinct of the latter. Personally, I feel strongly 

 inclined to believe that oui Elmsdale specimen came the much 

 shorter distance, from Newfoundland, having first been blown 

 out to sea or else transported on ice as before suggested, and 

 that therefore it should be recognized as Welch's Ptarmigan, the 

 so-called Lagopus welchi or Lagopus rupestris welchi as no doubt 

 it should be properly called. It is to be regretted that the 

 question of identity will probably never be more closely as- 

 certained. 



Welches Ptarmigan probably a geographical race of the Rock 

 Ptarmigan. — As there is no known difference in form, structure 

 or measurements between Welch's and the Rock Ptarmigan, 

 the only difference being the subsidiary one of the colour in 

 the summer plumage, the winter plumages being indistinguish- 

 able apart, it is extremely probable that L. welchi is not a 

 valid separate species, but is merely a non-migratory, insular 

 geographical race of L. rupestris, differing only in seasonal 

 colour. 



Brewster, when first describing welchi in the "Auk," vol. 

 2, April, 1885, pp. 193-195, says: "as there is good evidence 

 that their habitat is strictly isolated, intergradation with any 

 of their allies is so improbable that I have thought it best to 

 describe the bird as a full species, which I name after the col- 

 lector of my type." It is confined to the rocky hills and moun- 

 tains of parts of Newfoundland, while the stouter-billed Allen's 

 Ptarmigan {L. lagopus alleni, Stejn.) occupies the rocky barrens. 



The variation of colouring in the Ptarmigan generally, 

 is great, ev^en among individuals; and until a more extensive 

 series of L. welchi has been collected and compared with a 

 large number of othe/ related forms, one naturally feels cau- 

 tious in fully accepting it as a separate species, even if it has 

 been so generally considered in America since 1885. 



W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, in his Catalogue of Game Birds in 

 the British Museum (Catalogue of Birds in British Museum, 



