88 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 30 



Alexandras and albics are alike ia possessing a small, slender bill, 

 as contrasted with the heavy, more stubby bill of alascensis, and in 

 color and markings they are closely similar in some plumages. Adult 

 males in breeding plumage are essentially alike. The adult female of 

 aliv.s in breeding plumage (this and further allusions to alhus refer 

 to the British Columbia series) differs from the female aluscensis in 

 that stage, being much darker and less ruddy. The breeding female 

 of alexandrae (one specimen from Porcher Island, British Columbia) 

 is also a dark-colored bird but with a maximum of brown coloration in 

 the plumage. The dark-colored female of albii^ has extensive blackish 

 areas on the feathers, which are edged with dull brown or with grayish. 

 In the dark-colored female of alexandrae there is an extension of rich 

 brown markings on all parts of the bird. 



Differences between albii^ and alexandrae are readily apparent in 

 the "winter plumage, preliminary," that is, in the brown, late summer 

 garb (the plumage stage inserted between breeding plumage or juvenal 

 plumage, and the white Avinter plumage) in which both sexes and old 

 and young become essentially alike — or would do so if this plumage 

 were ever acquired in its entirety. 



Al&xamdrae in this plumage is well represented in a series of 

 specimens at hand collected by George Willett, mostly from Prince of 

 Wales and Dall islands. In an adult male (Willett coll., Dall Id., 

 September 3, 1919), head, neck, and body (except for a limited white 

 area on the abdomen) are almost solidly dark brown, ranging from 

 "brick red" to "Hessian brown" (Ridgway, 1912), with hardly a 

 trace of vermiculation or mottling on the breast, and relatively little 

 on the upper parts. In eojor tone and in markings on individual 

 feathers there is extraordinarily close resemblance to winter specimens 

 of the Scotch red grouse {Lago'pus scoticus). 



In albus in the same plumage, the browns are paler, there is much 

 black or dusky barring and vermiculation, and dorsally the feathers 

 are extensively black centered, and are gray tipped to such a d^ree 

 as to affect the color tone of the whole upper surface. In alasaensis 

 the browns are still paler, and the black centers and gray tips of the 

 dorsal feathers are almost or entirely lacking. 



Conditions in these western races of willow ptarmigan parallel to 

 some extent those found in the rock ptarmigan. In each species the 

 northern Alaskan subspecies is an extremely ruddy-colored bird com- 

 pared with the others, and in each the British Columbia subspecies 

 seems to reach an extreme of grayness. In each species, too, the 



