ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF LAPLAND. 341 



black transverse bands ; in the male they are red- 

 brown, speckled with black, and only one bar in 

 front of the white tip. The young at first are red- 

 brown, speckled with black and white, primaries 

 brown-grey. In August, however, they much re- 

 semble the mother, for white wing feathers usurp 

 the place of the brown, and the black feathers ap- 

 pear. In this month the old birds also shed their 

 wing and tail feathers, and also their claws. At 

 all seasons in the old birds the wing primaries are 

 white, and the fourteen tail feathers black with 

 white tips. Old Pennant seems to have had some 

 idea that the willow grouse was distinct from the 

 ptarmigan. An old male willow grouse is a mag- 

 nificent bird in his summer dress, as he rises in the 

 forest, and goes away as straight and sharp as an 

 arrow, but is by no" means a difficult bird to kill. 

 In the north this bird is preferred to the ptarmi- 

 gan for the table, but I never could detect any dif- 

 ference when cooked, except that it is larger. 



Nilsson says that both sexes moult in July and 

 August: and so they do as far as the wing and tail 

 feathers are concerned ; but although the body 

 colour appears to change in August, I do not think 

 it a regular moult. There is, however, not the 

 slightest doubt in my mind that the change from 

 the speckled summer dress to the white plumage 

 of winter is a true moult ; and as early as August 



