PTARMIGAN; 
271 
flocks known as “packs,” the males and females generally form- 
ing separate parties ; and it is not uncommon to find that all 
the birds killed in one drive are cocks, while on another beat 
the reverse obtains. (Grant, /.c.). 
Nest. — A slight hollow in the ground, sheltered by the longer 
heather and grass, and lined with moss and grass or such 
materials as chance to be on the spot. (Grant, /.c.). 
Eggs. — Varying in number from seven to ten and sometimes 
more. The ground-colour is pale cream or buff, spotted and 
blotched all over with dark reddish-brown, which often nearly 
conceals the ground-colour. Average measurements, i ’75 hy 
I '32 inches. (Grant, 
n. THE PTARMIGAN. LAGOPUS MUTUS. 
Lagopus cinereiis, Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 187 (1837). 
Lagopus mutus ] Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. i 57 ) pl®. 477j 
478 (1874); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 144 (1883); 
Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 83 (1883); Lilford, 
Col. Fig. Brit. B. part iii. (1888) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. 
B. p. 483 (1889); Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 44 
(1893) ; id. in Allen’s Nat. Libr. ix. p. 38 (1895). 
Tetrao muius, Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 424 (1884). 
Adult Male and Female at all seasons.* — Outer tail-feathers black, 
■with only the bases and tips more or less white; flight-feathers 
always white ; bill much more slender than in the Red Grouse 
or Willow Grouse; wing shorter, males measuring about 7-5 
inches from the bend of the wing to the end of the longest 
flight-feather. 
Adult Male and Female, Winter Plumage. — General plumage 
and middle pair of tail-feathers white, with a black patch in 
front of the eye in the male, which is absent or rudimentary in 
the female. 
Adult Male, Summer Plumage. — Head, upper-parts, middle 
pair of tail-feathers, sides, and flanks dark brown, mottled and 
* The descriptions are again taken from Mr. Ogilvie Grant’s volume 
