Volume 34, Plate II / Ornithology (Birds)

Rock Ptarmigan

Lagopus rupestris

The Rock Ptarmigan, regarded by later writers as merely a seasonal or sexual form of the common bird, shows in the male a snow-white plumage with black quill shafts and tail feathers and a black eye stripe, while the summer female is barred with blackish-brown and brownish-yellow above and yellow beneath, with white wings. A Sutherlandshire female measured rather more than twelve inches, the breeding dress being clearer than the autumnal plumage of males.