354 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[128.] 7. Tetrao (Lagopus) rupestris. (Leach.) Rock Grouse. 



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



Rock Grous. Penn. Arct. ZooL, ii., p. 312, No. 184. Lath. Syn. Suppl, p. 217. 



Tetrao rupestris. Lath. Ind., ii., p. G40, sp. 11. 



Tetrao lagopus. Temm., ii., p. 408.* 



Tetrao rupestris. Sab. Suppl. Parry's First Voy., p. cxcv. Richards. Append. 



Parry's Second Voy., p. 348, No. 8. 

 Lagopus rupestris. Leach, Gen. ZooL, ii., p. 290. 

 Uscathacheesh, Cree Indians. Kasbah-yazzeh, Chipewyans. 



Plate lxiv. Female. 



This bird was first described by Pennant as a distinct species, principally on 

 the authority of Mr. Hutchins, and was adopted into the compilations of Latham 

 and Gmelin ; but it was reserved for Captain Sabine to point out clearly the 

 differences between it and the Tetrao lagopus of the Highlands of Scotland ; the 

 principal of which are, the colours and markings of the summer plumage, and 

 the size : the Rock Grouse being smaller, having more of the brownish-yellow 

 in its summer dress, broader bars of black, and none of the cinereous tint which 

 predominates in the Ptarmigan f- If the latter visits the settlements on Hudson's 

 Bay otherwise than accidentally, of which there is much doubt, Hearne and some 

 other writers have confounded the two species under the name of Rock Grouse ; 

 and, indeed, in their winter dress the only perceptible difference between the two 

 seems to be size ; hence we can learn nothing certain from these authors of the 

 distribution of the species. Hutchins reports that the Rock Grouse is numerous 

 at the two extremities of Hudson's Bay, but does not appear at the middle 

 settlements (York and Severn factories), except in very severe seasons, when 

 the Willow Grouse are scarce ; and Captain Sabine informs us that they abound 

 on Melville Island, lat. 74° to 75°, in the summer. It arrived there in its snow- 

 white winter-dress on the 12th of May, 1820; at the end of that month the 

 females began to assume their coloured plumage, which was complete by the 

 first week in June, the change at the latter period being only in its commence- 

 ment with the males. Some of the males were killed as late as the middle of 



* Captain Sabine says, " A specimen recently received from M. Temminck as his European lagopus differs from 

 our Tetrao rupestris, from Melville Island, only in its reddish-orange markings being more vivid and predominant." 



f Captain Sabine observes that " the distribution of the coloured plumage of the Rock Grouse corresponds both in 

 the male and female with the Ptarmigan, the same parts of both species remaining white ; but there is much differ- 

 ence in the colour itself; the upper plumage of the Ptarmigan is cinereous, with undulating and narrow black lines 

 and minute spots ; whereas in the Rock Grouse each feather is black, cut by transverse broad lines or bars of a reddish- 

 yellow, which do not reach the shaft, and have spaces of black between them broader than themselves : the feathers 

 are tipped, in the male, with a light colour, that approaches to white in the female." 



