THE COMMON PTARMIGAN 
Lagopus mutus, Montin 
LOCAL Names :— Ptarmigan, Rock Partridge, White Partridge; Gealag bheirne, Ian Ban ant-Sneac, 
Sneacag, Tarmachan, Tarmachan Beinne {Gaelic) ; Fjal-ripe (Norwegian). 
Winter Plumage. 
Adult Male. — Pure white, with tail black and often well margined with white. In 
winter the tail-coverts are carried so that the tail is almost invisible, and the bird 
appears quite white, except for the black bill and black patch extending from eye to 
upper mandible. 
Adult Female. — Similar to male, the only difference being that the black patch 
in front of the eye is absent or rudimentary. The female is somewhat smaller than 
the male. 
Summer Plumage. 
Adult Male. — Throat and under parts white, wings white with primary shafts black, 
and the median and secondary wing coverts adjoining the scapular are black with white 
tips, with a few brown and black barred feathers intermixed. The flanks, breast, head, 
neck, and the whole of the upper parts are grey, with red-brown intermixed and transversed 
by black bars. In many specimens seen in May in full breeding plumage the whole 
end of the feathers of the breast and back are edged with crescent-shaped tips of white. 
These white tips wear off in early July. I have seen adult males retain two or three of 
the pure white winter feathers on the back and tail coverts as late as June. 
Adult Female. — General colour of upper parts, head, back, breast, and flanks, rufous- 
buff, heavily barred with black, and the same concentric white tips to the feathers. The 
whole of the under parts except the lower belly are also interspersed with these rufous 
and black feathers ; throat white, under tail-coverts rufous and black-barred. Its most 
variable character is the tail, which in some specimens is brown-black all over. Sometimes 
each feather is broadly edged with white, and sometimes it is half or wholly transversed 
with sandy rufous bars. No two specimens are alike in this respect. The feathers on 
the legs and toes of both sexes are almost grey, and not the pure white of winter. 
Autumn Plumage. 
Adult Male. — The male undergoes a very general moult throughout July and August, 
but it cannot be said correctly that the change is a complete unit in itself, because in late 
September the winter plumage of white comes and gradually mixes with it. This change 
I will refer to later. In August the nails of the claws are renewed. In autumn dress 
the whole of the dark parts of the summer plumage are replaced by grey feathers finely 
hooped and vermiculated with narrow black lines. The throat is now covered with 
black feathers with white ends, and the crown of the head and a circle of feathers 
63 
