Tlic principal food of tliis species consists of tlic leaves of plants, and s)irouts of scion,I kind.« of ivilloiv, berries, Ac. Wlicclwriglil. in
bis account of this I'tnrinigaii, a-s quoted by Breo in iiis '‘ Birds of Europe,” says tlial " tiic Willow ( !iw c , in smniiior, is iisunlly found
in valleys, mostly by the side of the iitflc becks or iiiouiilniii stream.« wliich run among the huslic.s and lliickcts. You alwiiys Iind them
in pairs or families, with the male and female together. Vou not only Iind them, aoeording to Nilsson, in tho interior of the country, but
even on the coast.« ami Islands. They crouch among the dwarf hireli, willow, or heather, and rarely rise until you nearly tron,i on lliom.
" Sometimes, howcier, they rise very wild, and in the s|)ring nnd nutnimi aiqioar most shy. They almost always nro on the ground,
and very rarely perch in a tree; hut although I have myself .seen, on more than one ocea.sioii, the Willow (ironse, nlieii frightened,
perch in the bireli trees, it is so r.ire an occurrence that many .leiiy it. Their flight a),]iears to me exactly to resemble tlmt of the Red
Grouse, and as they fly they utter a lond encklc which nmcli resembles • crrnckaeknckli.' "
111 the shape and size of the hills of these birds the most astonishing diirereiiees exist, and I have n c e r been able to fiiul two cxactlv
alikc. They range all the way from the robust and powerful to those almost as small and delicate a« characterize the I.,,;,opus Mutns. '
Tliis peculiarity is not confined to |iai-ticnlnr loealitic.«, else it might nimo.st be considored of spe. ilie value ; but moinbei's of the same
flock will differ in this respect us much among themselves, as though they ivere indeeil of so|iarate origin.
With siieeimens before me from Laplninl. Sweden. Denmark, Pinlmiil. Russia, aiul thronglioiit the northern portion of tho .\meriean
continent, I find this variation in the bill common to all, and do not consider it a.« indicative of any speeilic distiiictncs.«, as those specimens
which are in the simimcr dress ],reseiit a general similarity of coloring in tlioir |>luiiingo.
Bail'd, in his valuable work on '■ North .Uncriean Binls," in the article on this spoeies, speaks of some siieeimens in his obsession from
Labrador and Ncwfoniidlaiul, whieli "appear to have decidedly broader, stouter, and more convex bills than those from Hudson's Bay and
more nortbcrii countries," and says that it is passible there may be two species.
Among the large mimher of Willow (¡rouse obtained by .Mr. K.eniiioott. 1 Iind siieeimens from Croat Slave Lake, Maekeiizic River, and
Fort George, as well as othci-s brought from Lai,land «»d Sivedoti, «vhieh have as large bills as any from Newfoniuilaiid ; while fiom these
same loealities, and out of the same flocks, are other exnniples with much smaller and more feeble hills. It would therefore seem to he
the reasonable coiidusioii, that, mile.« the snniiiier dre.ss should he very unlike tha tyiiicnl style of A. Mbus. this variation in the hill must
be deemed as of no particular iiiiportanec in deeiding the species to wliieh the lur.l may l.el.mg, Imt merely one of those uiiaeeouiitable
freaks of nature oceasioiially met with. Thus far I have not seen any s[H;eimen of Ptarmigan of the Albus stylo, in Us summer drcs.«.
which presented undoubted cvidenees of belonging to a liiffcreiit species.
All Ptarmigan vary so mucli from each other, that, in order to determine a good s|)eries. many adult speeiineiis in summer ]>Imnage
mast bo nvailahlc; for I do not consider it a t all likely that any sjieeies of Ptarinigan, established' solely upon a skin of tiie bird when
ill Its iviiiter i>Imiiage, would stand the test of future research, as it could present bnt few. if any, reliable differences to distinguish it
from otiici's.
Some s)>eeimciis, in winter, have the hill nearly covered with feathers, giving to it the aiqiearanee of being quite small, whereas in
summer it woulil be the rcveree ; and the feathers on the legs nnd feet grow .so long and thick as to cause the latter to seem slKnteiied,
I luivc ineludcd among the synonyms of this spceics the Lagopus ¡Irarhiilartijlus of Temmiuck, lus I cannot )>eiecive any satisfactory
dilTercnces given in his dcseiiptioii to constitute his specimen as distinct. The hill, nearly hidden by feathers, is charneteristU' of all P m ;
inigan in the winter drcs«, as is, oDo, Inn ing the legs ami feet densely eovered.
As these birds vary so greatly in the color of their plumage, it is not Mirprising that .some should have the shafts of the primaries
white; but this would not be a reliable character to establish a speoies upon. I have seen siieeimens of A. AUms in winter dress, which '
hail the shaft.« of some of the primaries nearly white, while the rest were dark lirown.
From the incasnrements given by Tummiiiek, although they arc rather less than is usual, this bird would i
Lagopus Albus : bnt as it bus no blaek stripe through the eye, it may i.os.sil,ly be a female of the A. Matas.
1 to belong t
Amid a number of Ptarmigan sent to me by .Mr. Gould from I.omioii, fin- inv ins,ieetioii, and to «liom I fake this opVortnnity of
expressing my thanks for lii.s kiniliics.s, was a specimen from Arctic America, answering to the descriiition of li.-a-hydartylas. which,
excepting the white shafts of the ,.rimaries, agreed wilh many example.« in my possession from Great Slave Lake. As none of these last,
in the Slimmer ilress, present any iiiatcrini ilifTcreiiecs from tho A. Albus, I cannot Imt eonsider them as identical.
Anothci- specimen m Mr, Gimlirs series was a liylnid between tliis species and the Canaee Canadensis. It was in sninincr ilres.«, and
hail the slender nails and structnrc of featlicre of the Spruce Gronse; while a nnmher of white feathere, showing an evident inclination to
change in winter, betokened the Ptarmigan blood.
The Willow Pturiiiigaii dwell chiefly u)>oii the plains, and in this resiieet differ from the Lagopns Mutns. whicli makes Us home upon
the monntaiiis, near the line of pcrpctuai snow, Kioharilson states that. -‘ liko most other birds that summer within the Aretie circle, they
arc more in motion in the milder light of mglit than in tlic broad glare of dav. ’
Tills spceicH has a very wide distribution, as it is found in the high latitiiiles of both the Old and New Worlds, lieiiig abundant in
Sweden, Norway, Lapland, Russia, Siberia, Greeiilanii, and throughout the Arctic regions of North America, It is not fonnd in the
British Islands.
In Slimmer, the adult male has tho head, nock, and breast chestnut, sometimes very ilnrk, nearly liluek o
I the breast; barred on the
Re.st of u|i|)cr ]iarts hlnck.
top of the head and back of the neck with hlack; chin soinetiine.s black, wilii a white sjiot on e.ieh s
transversely barred with reddish yellow, Tail black, tipped with white, the two eoiitio feathere marked like the back. YViiig.«, abdoni
thigliB, and leg* pure white. Umlcr tail coverts broivn, barred with black. Nails long, brown, ami flat beneath.
The female, in summer, is rusty yellow in eolor, thickly barred and blotelieil with dark brown and black. This yellow lino extends
throughout the lower parts, soiiietiines white feathers appearing alumt the nlidoiiieii; the flanks are barred with blackish brown, Wings,
legs, and feet pure white. Tail blaek, tipped with white; upper coverts mottled like the back; lower coverts vcllowisli, barred with
dark brown. Bill hlack. Nails similar to those of tho male.
¿¡A