130 Canadian Record of Science. 
bird; for during my walks through the woods, I frequently 
came to places where a fox, lynx, marten, &c., had, in the 
night, approached cautiously (judging by the short foot- 
steps), and made a spring at the hole where the snow had 
been entered. Had the bird remained near the entrance it 
would certainly have been killed, instead of which it had flown 
up a yard or more away and escaped uninjured. The 
prairie hens, a good many of which are to be found near 
Moose, show great intelligence in this respect, and in very 
cold weather even take their siesta during the interval be- 
tween their breakfast and supper under the snow. I have 
often in the day-time seen them “pop” up their heads 
through the snow, without taking wing, before I got with- 
in gun range, no doubt to observe if it were an enemy 
that was approaching. 
Without including the white grouse, peculiar to the Rocky 
Mountains, there are, I believe, three other kinds to be 
found in the northern parts of British North America. 
First, there isthe willow grouse Tetrao (Lagopus) saliceti 
Sw. & R—albus Aud., the most numerous of all, met with 
more or less abundantly at different seasons, at or near the 
arctic coast, on the barren lands and along the shores of 
Hudson’s Bay, &c. 
This bird, as I have already said, not only resembles the 
Scottish cock grouse in its summer plumage, with the ex- 
ception of the wing-feathers being white in the former at 
all seasons, but in the pairing season their call and move- 
ments are so identical, that I consider them to be the same 
bird, modified to suit different winter climates. 
The other recognized white grouse (7. rupertris) is 
so well marked by its smaller size, its more slender beak, 
its different call and the black patch or streak from the 
beak to the eye, that there can be no possibility of mistak- 
ing it for the other species. It bears a very close resem- 
blance to the ptarmigan of Scotland. The third variety 
differs very considerably from both the above. Although 
about the same size as the willow bird, its beak appears 
shorter, its feet smaller, and its call perfectly different, 
