1908.] 



BIRDS. 



347 



Lagopus rupestris (Gmel.). Eock Ptarmigan. 



The distribution of this species is similar to that of the willow 

 ptarmigan, but in general it is a more northern bird than L. lagopus 

 and is much less migratory. Edward Sabine states that during 

 Parry's first voyage it was found in gTeat abundance on Melville 

 Island, where it arrived on May 12, still in its winter plumage. The 

 females completed their summer plumage by the end of the first week 

 in June, but some of the males had not begun to change by the middle 

 of the month." During Franklin's second overland journey the 

 species was noted at Fort Franklin late in October, 1825 ; ^ and Kich- 

 ardson described a winter specimen from the same place and a female 

 taken in summer on the Rocky Mountains in latitude 55°.^ This 

 last record indicates that L. rupestris breeds in the higher parts of 

 the Rockies to the southward of its generally recognized range. The 

 record has not been confirmed by later investigations, but it is not 

 improbable. King noted the occurrence of the rock ptarmigan in the 

 winter of 1833-34 at Fort Reliance, at the eastern end of Great Slave 

 Lake ; and Richardson observed it in the summer of 1848 at Point 

 Maitland. Liverpool Bay.^ J. C. Ross records it from Port Bowen in 

 October. 1824. where it was also seen from March to May, 1825.^ 

 Armstrong states that it was common on Prince of Wales Straits' 

 Harting records a sj^ecimen from Wellington Channel.'' M'Dougall 

 states that ptarmigan (probably of this species) were shot near Cape 

 Hay, Prince Patrick Island (latitude T6°), and also on Eglinton 

 Island, in the summer of 1853.*' Ross recorded a specimen taken at 

 Fort Good Hope.^' In the early sixties of the last century MacFar- 

 lane found this species to be far less plentiful in the Anderson River 

 region than L. lagopus^ and met with it in numbers only between Wil- 

 mot Horton River and the shores of Franklin Bay. He intimates, 

 however, that a few breed near the lower Anderson. In winter many 

 were found in the forested country to the eastward of Fort Anderson.'^ 

 Bendire records eggs taken in Gens de Large or Romanzotf Moun- 

 tains, northeast of Fort Yukon, Alaska, in May, 1869, by James Mc- 

 Dougall.' Russell states that one was killed in the Barren Grounds 



Suppl. to Appendix Parry's First Voyage, pp. cxcv, cxcvi, 1824. 

 ^ Narrative Second Expedition to Polar Sea, p. 60, 1828. 

 <^ Fauna Boreali-Americana, II, pp. 355, 356, 1831. 



Narrative Journey to Arctic Ocean, I, p. 166, 1836. 



Arctic Searching Expedition, I, p. 264, 1851. 

 f Parry's Third Voyage, Appendix, p. 99, 1826. 

 s Narrative Discovery Northwest Passage, p. 521, 1857. 

 '^Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1871, p. 117. 

 * Voyage of Resolute to Arctic Regions, pp. 291, 298, 1857. 

 j Can. Nat. and Geol., VI, p. 443, 1861. 

 ^ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, pp. 431, 432, 1891. 

 ^ Life Hist. N. A. Birds [I], p. 78, 1892. 



