TETRAONIDiE. 351 



[127.] 6. Tetrao (Lagopus) saliceti. (Swains.) Willow Grouse. 



Genus, Tetrao, Linn. Sub-genus, Lagopus, Vieillot. 



The White Partridge {Lagopus). Edwards, pi. 72 ; male in spring*. 



Tetrao lagopus. Forst. Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 390. 



White Grous. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 308, No. 183. 



Rehusak Grous. Idem, p. 316; E. 



Willow Partridge. Hearne, Journ., p. 411. 



Tetrao saliceti. Temm., ii., p. 471. Sab. Frankl. Journ., p. 681. Richards. Append. 



Parry's Second Voy., p. 347, No. 7- 

 Wawpeetha;o, Crees. Kasbah, Chipewyans. Akkai-diggreuck, Esquimaux. 



* 



The Willow Grouse inhabits the fur-countries from the fiftieth to the seventieth 

 parallels of latitude, within which limits it is partially migratory ; breeding in 

 the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, the barren grounds, and Arctic coasts ; 

 collecting in flocks on the approach of winter, and retiring southward as the 

 severity of the weather increases ; considerable bodies, however, remaining in 

 the woody tracts as far north as latitude 67°, even in the coldest winters. It is 

 tolerably abundant in the sixty-fifth parallel all the year, and assembles in vast 

 flocks on the shores of Hudson's Bay in the winter time. Mr. Hutchins has 

 known ten thousand captured in a single season at Severn River, and Sir Thomas 

 Button and other navigators speak of still greater multitudes. In the year 1819, 

 its earliest appearance at Cumberland House, lat. 54°, was in the second week 

 of November ; and it returned to the northward again before the beginning of 

 spring. The species seems to be identical with the Willow Grouse of the 

 Old Continent, which inhabits the greater part of Scandinavia, Kamtskatcha, 

 Greenland, and Iceland, and also the valleys of the Alps. In America, 

 these Grouse shelter themselves in the winter in thickets of willow and 

 dwarf-birches, on the banks of marshes and lakes, the tops and buds of the 

 shrubs constituting the principal part of their food at that season. Denuded 



of the males, but more generally towards the base of the plumage in the females. The wings (with the exception 

 of the tertiaries and deep black quill shafts"), the whole belly, posterior flanks, under tail coverts, and legs, are snow- 

 white ; and there are also two or three scattered white feathers on the back. The tail consists of sixteen feathers, the 

 lateral ones greyish-black, slightly tipped with white, more distinctly as they are nearer the middle. The middle 

 pair are inserted a little above the plane of the others, and consequently are somewhat incumbent ; they have much 

 broader white tips, and in some specimens are otherwise nearly black, in others they are marked like the dorsal 

 plumage. The coverts, two pairs of which equal the tail in length, are coloured like the back. Nails black. 



Dimensions. 

 Lin. 



6 Length of bill to rictus 



3 ,, of tarsus 



6 „ of middle toe 



n 



• As it appears in the beginning of May, lat. 65°, or towards the end of March, lat. 50° N. — R. 





Inch. 



Length, total 



16 



„ of tail 



4 



„ of wing . 



7 



„ of bill above . 



. 



ich. 



Lin. 





Inrh. Lin- 







10 



Length of middle nail 



. 7 



1 



4 



,, of hind toe . 



2 



1 



o* 



,, of its nail 



. 4 

 — R. 



