The Common Ptarmigan 
73 
am forced to admit that it is more than possible, and even probable, that it is very 
uncommonly marked small red grouse variety. Two very interesting birds which 
Mr. Grant thinks are undoubted hybrids between the two species were exhibited at the 
British Ornithologists' Club on December 18, 1907. In British Birds (Feb. 1, 1908) 
Mr. Grant gives an interesting account of these specimens, and figures of each. It 
must be noted that the male bird bears, as the Field remarked, a strong resemblance 
to a Norwegian willow grouse with dusky primary quills. I think that its claims are 
quite as doubtful as the Kintradwell bird. The two supposed hybrids are thus described 
by Mr. Grant : — 
" Figure 1. This fine adult bird, evidently a male, was killed at Kinloch Rannoch, Perthshire, 
on the 9th September 1907, by Mr. H. B. Debenham, of Thrifts Hall, Theydon Bois, Essex, and 
was recorded in the Field of 5th October 1907, p. 631. Mr. Debenham, who was kind enough 
to lend me the bird for exhibition, has informed me that it was shot on high stony ground at an 
elevation of about 3000 feet above sea-level, where Ptarmigan were numerous, but Red Grouse 
seldom seen. Though the bird did not rise with Ptarmigan, there were plenty of these birds 
close to it. The weight was i\ lb., equal to that of an average old cock Red Grouse. 
" It may be described as follows : Bill stout, as in the Red Grouse. General appearance and 
style of coloration like that of a large Ptarmigan in autumn plumage, but the head, neck, chest, 
back, upper tail-coverts, and some of the flank-feathers are much like those of a Red Grouse 
changing from the autumn to the winter plumage. It must, however, be specially noted that 
some of the new winter feathers moulting in on the chest, back, and upper tail-coverts are white, 
indicating a tendency to assume the winter plumage of the Ptarmigan. The breast and under 
parts are pure white, and the under tail-coverts black, widely tipped with white. The terminal 
half of the primary quills is mostly greyish-black, partially edged with white, and the remaining 
basal portion is white ; the secondary quills are white on the outer web and almost entirely greyish- 
black on the inner web ; the wing-coverts are mostly white, but many are partially black towards 
the base, and some of the lesser ones are black freckled with rufous, as in the Red Grouse. 
The wing measures 8 inches. 
" It has been suggested (cf. Field, October 19, 1907, p. 720) by Mr. W. Steuart-Menzies that 
this bird might be one of the Willow-Grouse or Ryper {Lagopus lagopus) which he imported from 
Norway and turned down in Banffshire last spring, but a glance at its dusky primary quills is 
sufficient to show that one of the parent birds must have been a Red Grouse. 
" Figure 2, the second example, which is undoubtedly a bird of the year, and almost certainly 
a female, has also the stout bill of a Red Grouse, and resembles in general appearance the male 
described above. 
" It differs, however, in having many of the greater wing-coverts partially, and the median 
wing-coverts mostly, mottled with black and rufous and tipped with white ; while many of the 
grouse-like feathers of the chest, sides of the back, sides of the body and flanks, as well as the 
upper and under tail-coverts, are conspicuously tipped with white. The wing measures 7.8 inches. 
"It was killed on Malundy, 3293ft., Monar Forest, Ross-shire, in November 1874, by Mr. 
W. J. O. Holmes, of Strumpshaw Hall, Norwich, and was in company with two Ptarmigan, which 
had been mounted along with it in the same case. One of these, a male, is in autumn plumage, 
but with some white winter feathers on the throat, breast, and upper tail-coverts ; the other, a 
female, is in full winter dress, with only one or two autumn feathers on the scapulars. Mr. Holmes 
has informed me that out of eleven brace of Ptarmigan killed on the same day, all were in autumn- 
winter plumage with the exception of the almost perfectly white female mentioned above, which 
must have attained its winter plumage at an unusually early date." 
Figure 2 seems to me to be a fine example of excessive leucotism, a phase of red 
grouse winter plumage not rare on the very high grounds of Ross and Sutherland. 
(See figure of male, Game Birds and Shooting Sketches, p. 56.) 
K 
