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WILLOW PTARMIGAN.— WILLOW GROUSE. 
Lagopus albus, Gmel . 
PLATE CCXCIX. — Male, Female, and Young. 
Although 1 have not seen this beautiful bird within the limits of the 
United States, I feel assured that it exists in the State of Maine, as well as 
in the northern districts bordering on the great lakes. Theodore Lincoln, 
Esq., of Dennisville, in Maine, shot seven one day, not many miles from 
that village ; and the hunter who guided me to the breeding-grounds of 
the Canada Grouse assured me that he also knew where the “ Red-necked 
Partridge” was to be found. The places which he described as frequented 
by them, seemed to bear as near a resemblance to those in which I found the 
species in Labrador and Newfoundland, as the difference of latitude and 
vegetation could admit. I have also seen several skins of individuals that 
were killed near Lake Michigan. 
The Willow Grouse differs in its habits from the Canada Grouse in several 
remarkable circumstances. In the first place, neither myself nor any of my 
party ever found the former solitary or single. The males were always in 
the immediate vicinity of the nest while the females were sitting, and 
accompanied them and the young from the time the latter were hatched 
until they were full-grown ; and whenever we met with them, we observed 
that the males and the females manifested the strongest attachment towards 
each other, as well as towards their young. In fact, so much was this the 
case, that when a covey happened to come in our way, the parents would fly 
directly towards us with so much boldness, that some were actually killed 
on the wing with the rods of our guns, as they flew about in the agonies of 
rage and despair, with all their feathers raised and ruffled. In the mean 
time, the little ones dispersed and made off through the deep moss and 
tangled creeping plants with great rapidity, squatting and keeping close 
to the ground, when it became extremely difficult to find them. This is 
the only American species of Grouse I am acquainted with that possesses 
these habits ; in all others found in the United States, the male not only 
leaves the female as soon as incubation has commenced, but both fly from 
man and urge their young to do the same from their earliest age. 
The Willow Ptarmigan, moreover, join their broods whenever an oppor- 
tunity offers, and we found flocks of old and young, in which the latter were 
