1B8 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



Lagopus rupesteis nelsoni Stej. Nelson's Ptarmigan. 



In his paper on the birds of Bering Sea in The Cruise of the Corwin, Mr. Nelson gives two 

 accounts of the Eock Ptarmigan, numbered, respectively (78) and (79), both, however, being placed 

 under the same headings, viz, Lagopus rupestris (Cm.) Leach. The Eock Ptarmigan. It needs 

 but a glance at the second account (79) to show that Mr. Nelson considered the bird here treated 

 of to be different from the one previously mentioned (78). In fact he states that " the detailed de- 

 scription of this form will be given in the account of the Birds of Alaska, now in coarse of prepara- 

 tion." He had thus noted the distinguishing characters of the form which was subsequently 

 named in his honor by Dr. Stejneger, and had intended to describe it in his report (*. e., the present 

 one), and to merely designate it by name in The Cruise of the Corwin. Why he subsequently failed 

 to set this forth in his errata slip I am at a loss to understand. He there complicates the matter 

 by stating that " through an error, the notes under numbers 78 and 79 were not placed under a 

 single heading." The form was named by Dr. Stejneger in Auk, July, 1884, p. 226, and partially 

 described. The types of the race were taken by Mr. Nelson at Unalaska, in spring, and winter 

 specimens were taken by Dall at the same place. A fine series of this bird, collected by Mr. Town- 

 send during the summer of 1886 at Unalaska, corresponds well with the types and confirms the 

 validity of the race. 



According to Mr. Nelson, this Ptarmigan is common on the Aleutian Islands, at least from 

 Unalaska eastward, where it frequents the mountain tops and slopes, breeding there in June. 



Subjoined is a description of the bird, prepared by Dr. Stejneger at my request. — H. W. H. : 



3 ad. (U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 73488. Type. Unalaska Island, Alaska, May 18, 1877. Coll. E. W. Nelson, No. 

 19.) Top of head and neck all around bright tawny brown, inclining to burnt sienna on the former, barred with 

 black ; rest of upper surface of the body deep umber-brown, eacJi feather being very finely and densely verniiculated 

 with blackish ; lores and eye-region black, more or less interspersed with old white feathers ; wings white, with a 

 few of the coverts and the tertiaries like the back, the six or seven outer primaries with the shafts dusky above; 

 under surface from the breast backwards, including the feathering of the feet, white except a few new feathers on the 

 flanks, which are like those of the back ; most of the nasal plumes, the feathers on the forehead, those on chin, throat, 

 and sides of face below the eyes are old white feathers, remains of the winter plumage, and a few similar ones are 



stated that "there is much difference in the color" in summer specimens of T. rupestris and T. lagopus. "The upper 

 plumage of the 'Ptarmigan' (T. lagopus) is cinerous, with undulating, narrow black lines and minute spots, whereas 

 in the Eock Grouse each feather is black, and cut by transverse broad lines or bars of a reddish-yellow »*»*•• 

 with spaces of black between them broader than the bars. The feathers are tipped with a light color in the male, 

 approaching to white in the female." 



The males {rupestris) average 13i and the females l'2i inches in length, and both were inferior in size to 

 specimens of T. lagopus. The two agree in the character of bill and claws and the black bar over the eye. 



The ground-color of the eggs of rupestris is" pale yellowish-brown, irregularly blotched and spotted with a, 

 darker brown." From the information procured from Sabine's coutribntion to the appendix of Parry's Voyage, lam 

 convinced that his rupestris is identical with reinhardli of Greenland and the adjoining American coasts, whereas 

 T. lagopus, which he describes as having been found in the country south of Barrow's Strait and east of Eegent's 

 Inlet, but as not met with in the North Georgian Islands, and which he claims is the Ptarmigan of Scotland, is 

 our rupestris. The specific characters of T. lagopus of Gmeliu mark it a? referable to rupestris, the summer plumage 

 of which is cinerous, with minute black lines, or spots, ex cept on the head and neck, whore it is characterized by the 

 same author as marked with broad bands of white. The white prevails on the throat and the back, and ferruginous 

 on the crown and hinder part of the head. The main portion of the preceding notes are from Sabine in a supple- 

 ment to Parry's First Voyage, under the heading of T. lagopus. From the statements made here it appears that 

 the birds from the coast northeai3t of Hudson's Bay are thus marked with fine undulating lines in summer and 

 heavier-barred markings about the neck. The male of rupestris in summer is distinguished by the large amount of 

 black forming the ground-color of the feathers and by the distinct barring of yellow or buff. Audubon's figure of 

 his Lagopus amerkanus answers perfectly to specimens contained in the National Museum from Cumberland Gulf 

 and the opposite coast of Greenland, and is undoubtedly referable to reinhardli. It is quite likely the specimens 

 recorded by authors as rupestris horn, the high northern latitudes along the Greenland coa.st and the adjoining mainland 

 may also be referable to this species. , While reinhardli is distinguished by the heavy black barrings which divides 

 the feathers into two orthree parts and the interspaces with grayish and buffy-brown spaces, rupestris has its plumage 

 covered with fine vermiculations and dottings of varying shades of brown, bnffy, and black. It was my intention 

 to make a satisfactory arrangement of the American Ptarmigan, but I find the amount of material contained in the 

 National Museum collection insufficient, as the individual variation among these birds requires a large series of speci- 

 mens from their entire range in order to give satisfactory data for generalizations. 



