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GROUSE-PTARMIGAN. 
We now come to that section of the Grouse to 
which the Red Grouse and Ptarmigan belong. Tliey 
have been separated from the others under the title 
of Lagopus — Grouse-Ptarmigan. They are even of 
a more solitary nature than the others, inhabiting the 
wildest muirs or most barren alpine ranges. The 
principal generic distinction is the entirely clothed 
feet and legs, covered with a rather rigid hair than 
feathers, and the want of tho scaling upon the sides 
of the toes ; the hind toe short, and tho claws long 
and of a particular flat triangularly pointed form in 
the more alpine birds, to assist in digging or bur- 
rowing under the snow. Five species only are known, 
natives of North America and Europe. Great Britain 
possesses three, one of which is not known out of 
the British Isles. It is the first we shall notice— 
