PTARMIGAN (with inorganic initial p, from Gael. tar,aacioi(, Ir. tarnioehon, tannonach, ptarmigan). A kind of grouse, differing from true grouse (q.v.) chiefly in having the tarsi and toes thitkly clothed with short feathers. The spe are natives of northern or greatly elevated regions. They arc not polygamous like the true grouse, our do th'e males strut with erected and cxpanded tail. 11lost of the species change color on the approach of winter, assuming at the fall molt a white or nearly white plumage, in place of the mottled reddish brown of summer. At this season also the shanks and feet acquire longer and denser feathering, and the short summer claws are shed and replaced by a growth of longer stronger claws of service in scratching away the snow to get at buried food; and the diversities of color have caused much confusion and diffi culty concerning them. All are highly esteemed as food, and are valued as game-birds. Less
often seen in Great Britain, but widespread, and numerous in Scandinavia and Northern Russia, whence great numbers are sent to market in win ter, is a grayer species (Lilt/opus •mu I us). Two closely allied species, the 'rock' and the 'willow' ptarmigans, range throughout Arctic America, but do not extend southward to the United States. Along the summits of the Rocky Mountains is to be found another species ( Lagopus lcurnras) in which the tail remains white all the year and it is therefore called the white-tailed ptar migan, or 'mountain quail.' All make their nests on the among the heather or thickets in which they pass their lives and find their food (buds, berries, leaves, and insects), and lay brown eggs very heavily blotched with brownish black. For bibliography, see GnotisE. See Plate of GROUSE, ETC.; and of EGOS Of WATER AND GAME BIRDS.