r 227 3 
I cannot alfo difcover, in any of the fpecimens* 
the two white feathers in the tail, according to 
Linnaeus’s defcription, reflricibus nigris apice albis 9 
intermediis albis , as the two covering feathers before-* 
mentioned cannot, with propriety, be termed inter - 
medii ; nor are they white in the fummer, but 
brown : fo that Linnaeus makes a circumftance, 
which varies with the feafon, to be a permanent 
charadteriftic of the bird. 
M. de Buffon next fuppofes [</], that Willoughby 
and Frifch fpeak of different birds under the name 
of Lagopus j becaufe the firft fays, that the feet 
are covered with foft, and the latter, with 
harfh and briftly feathers. The remarks, how- 
ever, of thefe ornithologifts, are eafily recon- 
ciled ; for, if the finger is drawn according to the 
courfe of the feathers, they feel foft; and, if in the 
contrary dire&ion, harfh and briftly. The difference 
alfo between Belon, Gefner, and Li.nnseus, with 
regard to the call of this bird, is as eafily accounted 
for; becaufe moft male birds differ from the fe- 
male in this refped, and fometimes the young birds 
from thofe which are full-grown. 
This naturally brings me to fhew, that M„ 
de Buffon (who hath great merit in other parts of 
his Natural Hiftory, by not unneceffarily multi- 
plying the fpecies of animals,) hath, in this kind of 
Tetrao, considered as two fpecies what, when pro- 
perly examined, will turn out to be only the La- 
gopus, or Ptarmigan. 
His chief realon for confidering the Lagopus of 
Hudfon’s Bay, as being diftinft from the Ttarmi- 
fil T. ii. p. 271. 
Hh 
Vol. LXIIL 
gan. 
