ROCK GROUSE. 
329 
Amelin; but it was reserved for Captain Sabine to 
Point out clearly the differences between it and the 
i'etrao lagopus of the Highlands of Scotland; the 
Principal of which are, the colours and markings of the 
St «nmer plumage, and the size ; the rock grouse being 
smaller, having more of the brownish yellow in its 
s Ummer dress, broader bars of black, and none of the 
rincreous tint which predominates in the ptarmigan.* 
u the latter visits the settlements on Hudson’s Bay 
otherwise than accidentally, of which there is much 
’Wbt, Hearue and some other writers have confounded 
me two species under the name of rook grouse ; and, 
h'deed, in their winter dress, the only perceptible 
difference between the two seems to be size ; hence we 
j?u learn nothing certain from these authors of the 
distribution of the species. Hutchins reports, that the 
h>ck grouse is numerous at the two extremities of 
Hudson’s Bay, but does not appear at the middle 
^Moments, (York and Severn factories,) except in 
v * r y severe seasons, when the willow grouse are 
■'‘arce ; and Captain Sabine informs us that they abound 
°U Melville Island, lat. 74° to 7.5', in the summer. It 
ri'rived there in its snow-white winter dress on the 
*2th of May, 1820; at the end of that month the 
''males began to assume their coloured plumage, which 
''’as complete by the first week in June, the change at 
;{*fi latter period being only in its commencement with 
me males. Some of the males were killed as late as 
me middle of June in their unaltered winter plumage. 
U this respect the species differs from the willow 
. ’ Captain Sabine observes, that “ tlie distribution of the coloured 
rriiuage of the rock grouse corresponds, both in the male and 
c,| >ale, with the ptarmigan, the same parts of both species 
gaining white ; but there is much difference in the colour 
“elf: the upper plumage of the ptarmigan is cinereous, with 
,, a| lulatmg and narrow black lines and minute spots; whereas in 
f ock grouse each feather is black, cut by transverse broad lines 
* Ws of a reddish yellow, which do not reach the shaft, and have 
of black between them broader than themselves; the feathers 
Sapped, in the male, with a light colour, that approaches to 
in the female. ” 
