brown, and having on the top of the head a light chestnut mark,
edged with darker. When first fledged they- are very' similar
to the young of the Red Grouse, but banded and spotted
with brighter reddish yellow.' .This plumage s,qou changes',
so that in the beginning of August many of the yellow and
brown feathers’ of the back are exchanged for others spotted
and barred with pale grey and brown-, and the under - parts
are white, -as well as the wings. These young birds become
white the first winter, like older ones'.J/; j
The Ptarmigan, Mr. Selby observes, has been reared in
confinement without much difficulty, and has been known te-
breed in a tame state.
A few particulars o f , two other species of Ptarmigan,
both of which are-closely allied to our. own, may not be out
of placé heré; :
The Dal-ripa of Scandinavia, the subalpina of M. Nilsson,
the saliceti of M; Tèmminck, and the; Willow Grouse
of English authors, is pure white in winter, except the shafts
of the quill-feathers "and the lower .series of tailrfeathers,
which are: black; the latter broadly tipped with- whiter' the
■male has.no black feathers, before or behind y.the ley§*?- it'-i^
further distinguished from our Ptarmiganby its ^larger si zey
and much stouter rbeak. In summer . both sexes , assume a
reddish yellow plumagé, somewhat resembling that -of; the
Red Grouse, the quill-feathers and part of the under -surface
of the body rélhaining w h i t e th e : claws black at the base,
white at the. énd. The male measures seventeen inches in-
length : the wing eight inches and; one quarter. - The female
measures sixteen, inches, and hér wing eight inches;I This
species is abundant in the countries about Hudson’s Bay,
wheré ten thousand have^been-taken in’ One winter^. A coloured
figure of this bird in its summer plumage will be
found at page 72 of Edwards’ Gleanings in Natural .History,
and in Mr. Gould’s Birds of Europe.
Mr. Lloyd says that M. Nilsson considers the Scandinavian
Fyall-ripa identical with our Ptarmigan, to be the same
bird described by Faber, jas common to Icèland; but with
two-specimens of the Iceland’ bird before me, obtained from
Mr. Procter, r if• the Durham Museum, who brought them
from Iceland himself, I am induced to think Faber was
correct in considering thé Ptarmigan, ofolpeland. distinct, arid
naming rit "accordingly- Islundowm.' Both the specimens I
pösséss are males, one in winter’ plumage, the other killed in
spring, and' exhibiting a portion .of.'the.;pluriiag.e ofo summer.
Both these birds have^black feathers beforehand behind the
•eye,"-and’by this mark are distinguished from the. Willow
Bird^.'böth thesê-birds measure-jpventéenlinches in length,
and are therefore as large as the largest males of the Willow
Bird ;-“ithe beak is equally bulky, and the colour i of, the
‘summer plumage in the spring-killed specimen, :as far as at
present obtained, does not agree with that of either the male
or female of our Lagopus mutus.
I believe, with M. Temminck and Mr. Henry Doubleday,
that the Ptarmigan figured by -Mr. Gould and Mr. Eyton
under the name of rupestïis, is only the. femalf^f cur common
Ptarmigan m her summer plumage.
In orir three representations of the Ptarmigan, at the head
Uf this subjeèithe .lqwer./figure is .taken from a female killed
in the month of May, the upper figure from a male killed
in October, and thé middle figure from a male bird killed in
January.
Since the account' *pf the Capercaillie'here given was printed,
I have learned by the publication of an article upon this
bird in the Sporting Review, for April 1840, that the greate
s t success in hatching-and. rearing^the young birds was obtained,
at ~ the seat of Lord Breadalbane in Scotland last
/year, by putting the eggs laid by the Capercaillie, hens in
the aviary into the nests of the Black Grouse;. “ Forty-nine