LAGOPUS MUTUS. 
others with many blue autumn feathers. Up to July 9th I observed that all the old males which I killed were dark brownish-black on the back, 
speckled with lig-hter brown, especially on the head, breast, and sides; belly, pure white, but the dark bi’east is much more conspicuous in some 
than in others. By July 20th the whole body-color had become lighter, and by the end of July rvas evidently changing to blue-gray, but still 
speckled with brown, especially on the head. By the 6th of August the majority of the males had assumed a totally different dress : head still 
speckled with yellowish-brown; back, bluish-gray, watered with black aud white; belly, pure white; and this was the plumage of the males on 
August 18th, when I killed my last. This blue-watered dress appears by degi-ees to become fainter, in fact mere gray-blue, until the end of 
September ; but the Avhite winter feathers keep gradually showing themselves under the blue autumnal dress. I observed in two specimens shot 
eai’ly in October the year before, that one -was half blue and half white, i. e., that half the body appeared to be covered with the blue autumn 
dress, the other half with the white winter plumage, some of which, if not all, were perfectly new feathers, for I observed blood-shafts to many 
of them ; in the other specimen, very few of the blue autumn feathers remained. Prom what I could hear, for I did not stop up long enough 
to judge for myself, I should say that in many, perhaps most, the pure white winter dress is complete by the third week in October. 
“ Much as the males vary in plumage, the females appear to vary still more, and only to have a standing dress for about three weeks in June, 
just when they are laying, and this early summer dress may be described thus : body, blackish-brown, every feather broadly edged with yellow, brown, 
and white, giving the bird a very light yelloAV-brown appearance ; breast, much lighter ; belly, never pure white, as in the male, but, as well as the 
sides aud breast, covered with black zig-zag lines on a rusty yellow and white ground, the white color most apparent on the belly. By the 
second week in June this dress was complete in most, although the birds vary much in shading, scarcely two being exactly alike, when it all at 
once became much darker. In fact, we may describe the summer dress of the feiufile Ptarmigan thus : throughout the whole of May the ground 
plumage was white, here and there speckled with mottled rusty yellow and black feathers, which, as in the males, appear first on the head and 
neck, then on the back. By the third week in May the body is thickly speckled with these mottled feathers (some intermingled with the white, 
others shooting out from the skin under them), so we are not at all surprised that early in June a sudden change takes place, and all at once the 
bird assumes its early or first summer dress, as above described. About the end of July Ave see some small blue feathers shooting out among 
the rusty broAvn ones, and this appears to be a true moult, and not a change in color of the feathers. The bird uow assumes a beautiful dress, 
far more handsome than the male — brown-red, variegated Avith blue-gray, which often on the back appears in patches. But the females vary 
so much in color that a minute description of one Avould not apply to another. I fancy that both male and female retain this blue dress longer 
than any other. It gradually becomes lighter as the season advances, till at length the old female is quite blue (but still always with some rusty 
mottled yelloAv feathers at the sides), and about the middle of October the blue dress gives place to the pure AA'hite plumage of winter. 
“ The plumage of the young in the doAvny state is rusty yellow, with longitudinal markings aud minute spots of black ; the first dress after 
that is black, mottled Avith rusty yelloAv and Avhite above ; underneath, pale rusty broAvn Avith blackish Avavy lines ; wings, grayish-broAvn. Early 
in August the body plumage becomes grayish-blue, finely streaked with black, and the pinions white instead of brown. This gray plumage 
gradually becomes lighter, as in the old birds, till, like them, they assume their winter livery, and by the first of November there is no percej)tible 
difference between old and young birds. 
“ It appears, then, that the Swedish Ptarmigan has three distinct dresses in the course of the year, and so many intermediate changes that 
they appear to have a different dress for every summer month. 
'‘The Ptarmigan may truly be said to be a child of snow, for you never meet Avith them off the real fells, although I huA^e occasionally flushed 
them from the fell-sides, just where the willow bushes end. Their real home is the higher fell-tract, and in the middle of summer on their very 
highest snow-clad summits. In the spring they come down to the lower fells to breed, but you never find them there in the end of summer. 
The pairing season here appeared to begin early in May, aud lasted a fortnight or three weeks, and during this time the hoarse laughing love- 
call of the old male might be heard at very earliest dawn on any of the fell-tops. This is soon answered by the finer ‘i~i — -ack; i— i — ack,’ of 
the female, and the love-chase commences. This is the time Avhen many are shot off, for they are now too engrossed Avith each other to heed 
the shooter, Avho lies behind a stone on the pairing ground, and picks them off as he pleases. 
“ Both the Ptarmigan and the WilloAV Grouse are strictly monogamous. Some naturalists appear to have an idea that both, when pairing, 
have a kind of ‘lek,’ or j)lay, like the capercailzie and black cock, both of Avhich birds are polygamous. I can only say I never saw anything of 
the kind. The Ptarmigan certainly have their favorite pairing grounds on the fells, and here the birds assemble at daylight in the early spring, in 
small flocks, but Avidely scattered all over the place. The old males utter their peculiar love-call, AAdiich is answered by the female, and they draw 
together; but although there are several males in the neighborhood, each one seems to have his particidar stand and his own favorite female, 
and if by chance another male intrudes on his ground, he drives it off. 
“Early in June the female commences to lay, forming an artless nest on the bare stones in the heather, or Ainder a small bush; always, as 
far as I could see, above the very top edge of the willow region, but never on the snow-fells. As long as the female continues to sit, the old male 
Avatches in the vicinity of the nest, like the WilloAV Grouse ; but as soon as the young are hatched off he leaves them to the care of the mother, 
and joining a lot more ‘bachelor friends,’ they seek the tops of the highest fells (leaving the female and young brood lower down in the fell 
valleys). Early in August the young will be strong flyers; the old female then takes them higher upon the fells; they are joined again by the 
old male, and the aaEoIc family keep together till the autumn snoAV falls, Avhen several families pack, and large flocks are met Avith in the lower 
fell-tracts during the whole winter. 
“ In the summer the food of the Ptarmigan seems to consist entirely of leaves, flowers, and fruit of the fell-shrubs. The young live much on 
insects, and in the winter the frozen fruit of the crowberry aud cranberry afford them ample supply of food, and there are ahvays bare j)laces, 
even on the highest fells, from which the wind has blown the snow.” 
Some authors have stated that they have met AAuth this species in Arctic America, and that the specimens they obtained differed in no way 
from the Ptarmigan of Scotland. In the collections sent to the Smithsonian Institution, obtained in the northern portions of the American 
continent, I have never seen any specimens of the Lagopus Mutus, the only species of Ptarmigan represented being the Lagopus Albus, and 
Lagopus Kupestris; consequently, I am strongly inclined to the belief that the common Ptarmigan of Europe is not found in the New World, 
but is represented by the Kock Grouse. 
I have found it necessary to give tAvo plates of this species, in order to show the change of plumage the bird undergoes. The first represents 
adults and young in summer ; the male in the back-ground already beginning to assume the fall style of coloring. I have observed this change 
to occur in individuals quite early in the summer. The other plate represents the birds in their winter dress. All the figures are of the natural 
size. 
