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sufficiency ; and it would seem to be most likely the Lagopus rv/pestris ; but without any number 

 of examples to enable me to form my opinion, I have deemed it best to give a figure of the 

 female sent to Mr. Gould, and to hope that some not very distant day will afford the material for 

 rightfully determining what is now so doubtful a point." In the specimens which we examined 

 we found that the bill was very little (if any) larger than in L. rupestris ; and the claim of the bird 

 to specific distinction rests, in our opinion, not so much on the larger size, as Mr. Elliot suggests 

 (for this seems to vary also), as upon the difference of coloration and upon the constant difference 

 in colour of the tail. 



The late Mr. Evans sent the following account of the species to Mr. Gould: — "The skin 

 sent is the only one I have from Spitsbergen, although I shot many. The birds were so plentiful 

 that, thinking I could always procure examples, I neglected to preserve any at the time, and was 

 obliged to come away at last with only this one. The hen birds had all assumed their summer 

 plumage ; but the males had not changed a feather, though the old ones, which had become 

 very ragged and dirty, would almost fall off on being touched. I started one hen from her nest, 

 or rather from the little dry hollow where she had collected a few stems of grass, and found two 

 eggs ; these were all we met with ; the nest was placed in the high fields, where, in the dry parts, 

 scarcely any vegetation is to be seen, while the swampy portions, where the snow had melted, 

 were covered with coarse grass and the dwarf willow, which is the only thing approaching to a 

 shrub on these barren, treeless islands. The specimen sent was shot on the 27th of June, on 

 the south shore of Ja Sound, in about 77|-° north latitude. The neighbouring country consisted 



