362 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



mountains in Scotland." On April 19, 1776, he enters that the 

 ptarmigan on the hills are "beginning to change colour now." 



Audubon says that they are abundant at Bras d'Or in winter, con- 

 gregating "in flocks of immense numbers, now and then mixed with 

 the smaller species .... (Lagopus rwpestris). Their flesh is then 

 salted for summer use." He found the bird with young just out of 

 the shell on July 5, 1833. Frazar says that this ptarmigan visits the 

 southern coast regularly in winter, but retreats into the interior in 

 summer. It was unusually abundant in the winter of 1886-7. In 

 February, 1885, two or three invoices of ptarmigan from Labrador were 

 offered in the Boston markets (Ornith. and oologist, vol. 10, 1885, 

 p. 32). Low found eggs on the upper Hamilton River on June 25th. 



Lagopus rupestris (Gmel.). 



Rock Ptarmigan; " Mountain Partridge "; "Rocker"; 

 ' ' Akkigik ' ' (Eskimo) . 



Common permanent resident in the treeless region except in the 

 extreme north. 



The Rock Ptarmigan is found in summer in the treeless region and 

 on the hilltops except in the extreme north where it is replaced by 

 Reinhardt's Ptarmigan. In winter it migrates to the southern parts 

 of the peninsula. Low says it is common in the valley of the Hamilton 

 River during the winter, and that it leaves for the northward about 

 April 15th. Audubon was informed by Mr. Jones that when the last 

 of the Wild Geese had passed, the Rock Ptarmigan came in numbers 

 about Bras d'Or and spent the winter on the wind-swept hilltops, 

 repairing in the beginning of summer to the open grounds of the 

 interior to breed. In another place he says: "They keep in great 

 packs [in winter], and when disturbed are apt to fly to a considerable 

 distance, shifting from one hill to another, often half a mile off." 

 Frazar says: "Mr. Jones, with whom I lived at Cape Whittle, and 

 who was a very reliable man, told me that several years before he was 

 on the shore of the Straits one day in early winter, and that flock after 

 flock of these birds were flying in from across the water and that they 

 lit upon the first land they could reach, evidently being greatly fatigued." 



Dr. Grenfell told us that ptarmigan sometimes alight on vessels 

 in the Straits of Belle Isle. Ptarmigan are easily killed and form an 

 important food supply for the fur trappers in winter. 



