OF NOETHUMBEELAKD AXD DUKHAM. 89 



little doubt that L. Svoticm is merely a rariety or race of L. 

 saliceti, as believed by Schlegel and some other authors. 



A very beautiful variety of the Bed Grouse was shot by the 

 late Dr. Beggs, on the moors near Eeedsmouth, on the 4th of 

 November, 1859, which he kindly presented to me. The under 

 parts of this bird are of a warm yellow-ochre colour, marked 

 with strong, distant, black, undulatiag, broken bars ; on the 

 flanks the bars are stronger than elsewhere, and resemble those 

 of the summer dress of the female Ptarmigan. The upper parts 

 are darker but of the same tint, and the undulating bars are 

 smaller and more crowded ; these parts, in fact, resemble very 

 much, both in colour and markings, those of the Ptarmigan. 



Yarieties also frer[uently occu.r on our moors having the fea- 

 thers of the upper parts vrith strong, dusky, transverse waved 

 lines, and terminated by a large pale buff or white spot. The 

 birds with this beautiful and strongly marked plumage are all 

 females, and they present a remarkable resemblance to the Ptar- 

 migan in the summer dress. The female Grouse is always more 

 varied than the male, and does in fact always more or less 

 approach to the colour and style of markings of the female Ptar- 

 migan. The more uniform colouring and less conspicuous mark- 

 ings of the males of the two forms are also remarkable. 



I am not only satisfied that L. Scoticus is merely a race of L. 

 saliceti, but I am quite inclined to think that the Scotch Ptar- 

 migan, and the Eock Grouse of Iceland, Greenland, Lapland, 

 Norway, and Switzerland, ought not to rank as species, but 

 only races of one and the same form. 



Indeed there is not much to distinguish L. saliceti, including 

 the race L. Scoticus, from the Ptarmigan ; the latter is smaller, 

 and the head and beak are also smaller than in the others. In 

 habits, however, they differ considerably, and the Ptarmigan 

 does not utter the alarm cry, lecJc, lech, which is common to 

 both Li. saliceti and L. Scoticus, but makes a very peculiar low 

 croaking noise when disturbed, which it utters at intervals while 

 on the wing, and which resembles nothing so much as the croak- 

 ing of a toad. 



In the downy state the markings of the Ptarmigan and those 



