60 PTARMIGAN. 



the season advances, give place to the pure immaculate plumage which distinguishes both 

 sexes during winter." 



Those who may wish for a most minute and careful account of the changes which 

 the plumage of the Ptarmigan undergoes in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, we 

 refer to Macgillivray's elaborate work on British Birds, vol. i., page 188-197, where 

 every change is most accurately described. 



In the young the feathers are spotted and barred with yellow and dark brown. 

 Wings, white; shafts of quills, dusky; tail, brown black; centre feathers barred with 

 yellow and dark gray. 



The weight of the Ptarmigan is about nineteen or twenty ounces. 



In length the Ptarmigan will measure from fourteen inches to fifteen and a half, the 

 males being rather the largest. 



The Lagopus rupestris, or Rock Ptarmigan, is now generally considered to be only 

 one state of this bird. 



