AUTUMN IN NORWAY. 
185 
life, but the full descriptions given in the Ibis for 1885, 
p. 386, and 1886, p. 49, leave no room to doubt that it 
is a true ptarmigan, agreeing in note and frame with 
those of Scotland and Scandinavia, but differing there¬ 
from in the absence of a lavender-blue autumnal dress, 
in which characteristic lies its chief title to specific 
differentiation. 
The (so-called) ptarmigan of the higher arctic region 
—that is, Lag opus hemileucurus , of Spitsbergen—is 
totally different, and is not a ptarmigan at all, but a 
true grouse. The points in which ptarmigan differ from 
grouse are very distinct, and may be described (apart 
from plumage) thus (1) The guttural croaking note, 
like that of a frog. (2) The weak and comparatively 
slender beak and claws. But the beak and claws of the 
Spitsbergen ryper are remarkably strong and thick— 
stronger than those of the willow-grouse, indeed its 
claws resemble those of badgers-—while its note is a 
distinct grouse-like “ bee, bee,” lower and more subdued 
than that either of our bird or its Scandinavian repre¬ 
sentative, but in no way resembling a croak. Its 
plumage also coincides in colour with that of the 
willow-grouse, and it further agrees therewith in 
frequenting the valleys and lower grounds. 
Since I first made the acquaintance of Lagopus 
hemileucurus in Spitsbergen, in July and August, 1881, 
I have had more extensive experience of this family, 
and am now sure that the big brown Spitsbergen ryper 
are not ptarmigan at all, but merely the hyperborean 
variety of the willow-grouse, bearing precisely the same 
relationship to the latter as it, in turn, holds to our 
own red grouse. To make the relative distribution 
