WILLOW GROUSE. 
327 
39. TETRAO (LAGOPUS) SALICETI, SWAINSON. — WILLOW GROUSE. 
Genus, Tetrao, Linn. Sub-genus, Lagopus, Vieillot. — The 
White Partridge, ( Lagopus ,) Edwards , pi. 72 ; male in spring. 
— Tetrao lagopus, Forst. Phil. Trans, lxii. p. 390. — White 
Grouse, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 307, No. 183. — Rehusak 
Grouse, Idem , p. 316 ; E. — Willow Partridge, Hearne , Journ. 
p. 411 Tetrao saliceti, Temm. ii. p. 471.; Sab. Frankl. 
Jour. p. 681 ; Richardson , App. Parry's Second Voy . p. 347, 
No. 7 Wawpeethseo, Crees . Kasbah, Chipewyans. Akkai- 
diggeeuck, Esquimaux . 
“ The willow grouse inhabits the fur countries from 
the fiftieth to the seventieth parallels of latitude, within 
which limits it is partially migratory; breeding in the 
valleys of the Rocky Mountains, the Barren Grounds, 
and Arctic coasts ; collecting in flocks on the approach 
of winter, and retiring southward as the severity of 
the weather increases ; considerable bodies, however, 
remaining in the woody tracts as far north as latitude 
67°, even in the coldest winters. It is tolerably abun- 
dant in the sixty-fifth parallel all the year, and assembles 
in vast flocks on the shores of Hudson’s Bay in the 
winter time. Mr Hutchins has known ten thousand 
captured in a single season at Severn River, and Sir 
Thomas Button, and other navigators, speak of still 
greater multitudes. In the year 1819, its earliest 
appearance at Cumberland House, lat. 54°, was in the 
second week of November ; and it returned to the 
northward again before the beginning of spring. The 
species seems to be identical with the willow grouse 
of the Old Continent, which inhabits the greater part 
of Scandinavia, Kamtschatka, Greenland, and Iceland, 
and also the valleys of the Alps. In America, these 
grouse shelter themselves in the winter in thickets 
of willow and dwarf birches, on the banks of marshes 
and lakes, the tops and buds of the shrubs constituting 
the principal part of their food at that season. Denuded 
sandy spots are favourite resorts in the daytime ; but 
they pass the night in holes in the snow. When 
pursued by a sportsman or bird of prey, they often 
