202 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Additional Literature.—Brooks, Allan, Auk, XLIII, 281-287, 1926 (dis¬ 
play).— Edson, J. M., Condor, XXVII, 226-229, 1925 (Sooty Grouse).— Judd, S. D., 
Bull. 24, Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. Agr. 41-44, 1905. 
SOUTHERN WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN: Lagopus leucurus altipetens Osgood 
Description. — Wing: 6.3-6.7 inches. Feet densely feathered, suggesting the 
name hare-feet. Male with a naked red comb over the eye (after the breeding 
season less brilliant and mostly covered with feathers). Adults in winter: Pure 
white; eyes, bill, and claws black. Adults in summer: Belly, 
wings, legs, and tail white, but tail hidden by long mottled 
coverts; rest of plumage variously spoiled, barred, and mottled 
with black, white, and pale fulvous or buff y. Adults in fall: 
Upperparts pale cinnamon-rufous; back, rump, and upper tail 
coverts finely dotted and vermiculated with brownish black; 
head and neck lighter, breast, sides and flanks similar but darker; occasional feathers 
of breast marked with white; middle of abdomen, under tail-coverts, tail and wings 
pure white. Young: Till half grown, tail gray; afterwards white. 
Fig. 32. Foot of 
Ptarmigan 
PhotORraph by E. 11. Warren 
Fig. 33. The Ptarmigan in Winter Disguise 
Range. —Resident in Arctic-Alpine Zone of Cascades and Rocky Mountains, 
in Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. 
State Records. —The Southern White-tailed Ptarmigan was added to the 
known forms of New Mexico by Dr. B. J. D. Irwin, U. S. A., who secured specimens 
near Cantonment Burgwyn before 1866. They were probably obtained on the 
Truchas Peaks in the Sangre de Cristo Range, the nearest mountains to Canton¬ 
ment Burgwyn high enough to furnish the necessary conditions. This was many 
years ago before the high country had been given over to sheep grazing, and at that 
