APPENDIX. 
245 
other species, but lighter, and settle on a distant part of the 
mountain, or betake themselves to one of the neighbouring 
summits. The eggs are similar to those of our other species, 
but somewhat smaller, and generally with larger blotches. 
As an article of food, this species is not so highly esteemed 
as the other, its flesh having less of that peculiar flavour which 
gives it its chief merit. 
After examining about sixty specimens belonging to this 
genus, independently of several dozens of the present species, 
I have thought that not only is our Red Grouse peculiar to 
Britain, but also our Grey Ptarmigan ; for, I think, the Con- 
tinental bird that has been confounded with it diflers as much 
from it, as it diflers from the Lagopus rupestris of America. 
Should this opinion be correct, our bird might be named La- 
gopus Scoticus, 
Ptarmigan. White Game. White Grouse. 
Tetrao lagopus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 274. — Tetrao lagopus, 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. ii. 468. — -Lagopus cinereus. Grey Ptar- 
migan, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 187. 
APPENDIX. 
In the seventeenth number of Mr YarrePs History of Bri- 
tish Birds, a work remarkable for the great beauty of its 
engravings, as well as for more important merits, it is stated 
that a specimen of the Purple Martin, Hirundo purpurea, of 
America, was recently shot near Kingston, in the county of 
Dublin, and is now preserved in the Museum of the Royal 
Dublin Society. This statement is given on the authority of 
Mr Frederick M^Coy of Dublin. Of course, Hirundo purpurea 
is to be added to the list of British Birds, and comes very 
opportunely, as it reduces our terrestrial species to an even 
number. The following characters are those given by me in 
Mr Audubon^ s Synopsis. 
160 . Hirundo purpurea. Purple Martin. 
Bill rather stout ; wings as long as the tail, which is deeply 
emarginate ; plumage silky, shining, purplish -black, with steel 
blue reflections ; quills and tail-feathers brownish-black ; tarsi 
and toes purplish-black. Female with the upper parts paler. 
