326 TETRAO LAGOPUS MUTUS. 
T. urogallus , a former inhabitant of Scotland) prefer 
forests of pine, and of such other hardy trees as grow 
readily on the sides of mountains. The red grouse, 
( T. scoticus ,) so highly esteemed as an article of food, 
and so eagerly followed by our sportsmen, confines 
itself to the acclivities of mountains and moors, and 
is careless of other shelter than that afforded by the 
natural roughness of the ground and its plentiful 
covering of heath. The habits of the black cock 
( T. tetrix) may he said to be, in this respect, interme- 
diate between those of the two species just alluded to ; 
for although it usually occurs in mountainous and 
moorish districts, it exhibits a partiality for cover of 
birch or willow. Ptarmigans seem to prefer, in com- 
paratively temperate climates, such as that of Scotland, 
the bare and stony sides and summits of the highest 
mountains ; but under the severe climate of Greenland, 
and the most northern parts of North America, they 
are chiefly found in the vicinity of the sea shore, by 
the banks of rivers, and among the willow and other 
copse wood of the lower and more sheltered vales. 
S8. TETRAO ( LAGOPUS ) MUTUS, LEACH. THE PTARMIGAN. 
Ptarmigan, Penn. Brit. Zod. 1. p. 359, pi. 57. — Upper Figure, 
Tetrao lagopus, Captain Sabine, Suppl. Parry's First Voy . 
p. cxcvii. Sab. ( «7. ) Frankl. Journ . p. 682. Richardson, App. 
Parry's Second Voy. p. 350. 
According to Captain Sabine, this bird inhabits the 
islands lying to the southwest of Baffin’s Bay, as well 
as the loftiest mountains in Scotland. A specimen 
from Churchill River, Hudson’s Bay, was declared by 
Mr Sabine to be identical with the ptarmigan of Scot- 
land, thus establishing it as an inhabitant of the 
American continent. It remains, however, to be seen 
whether or not it is the same, according to the method 
of discrimination, depending on the form of the head, 
&c. as pointed out by Brehm. 
