342 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



16 I shot ah old male, on the back and rump of 

 which many of the white winter feathers were 

 appearing among the brown, and these were cer- 

 tainly new feathers. In the end of April they 

 began to assume the summer dress by a true moult, 

 which was complete by about the end of May, as 

 in the ptarmigan, the summer feathers always first 

 appear on the head and neck, and when these 

 parts are in full summer dress the body very 

 quickly changes colour. 



Analogous to the change of plumage in both 

 the ptarmigan and willow grouse is the shedding 

 of the claws, which in winter are long, nearly 

 straight, concave underneath, and white ; in the 

 summer much shorter, brown, and flat. This 

 takes place, at different times in different indivi- 

 duals, from the end of June to the middle of 

 August. Cabanis is of opinion that this happens 

 twice in the year ; Mewes, on the contrary, dis* 

 tinctly says that the claws are shed only once in the 

 year, and I agree with him. The new claws are at 

 first about 8mm. long. I have measured the claw 

 of a ptarmigan killed in December 21mm., and in 

 one which I shot on June 22, the claws (evidently 

 new ones) measured 10mm. This is doubtless 

 another of the wise provisions of nature to enable 

 these birds to scratch down to their food under the 

 snow- They appear to grow longer as the winter 



