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SHORT-TOED PTARMIGAN.

Lagopus brachydactylus.
Tetrao brachydactylus, Temm.

Le Tetras a doigts courtes.

WE are indebted to the kindness of M. Temminck for the loan of his specimen of this fine species, which he
informs us he received from the Baron de Feldegg of Frankfort, who obtained it from the northernmost part
of Russia. It is a remarkable and well-defined species, differing from Lagopus Saliceti in having the nostrils
thickly covered and the bill almost hidden by feathers, in its shorter and thickly feathered tarsi, and in
having the shafts of the primaries and the nails of the toes of a pure white. We regret that we are unable
to give any account of its habits and manners, in which it doubtless closely resembles the other members of
its genus; or of the localities it frequents, further than that it appears to be an inhabitant of the extreme
northern regions of the Old World. It is exceedingly interesting to the ornithologist, from the circumstance
of its forming another species of that beautiful group the Ptarmigans.

If we were more fully acquainted with its history, we should doubtless find that it is subjected to a change
of plumage similar in every respect to its congeners, being of a rich chestnut brown in summer, and of a
spotless white in winter. M.Temminck’s specimen, which we believe to be unique, has the whole of the
plumage of a pure white, with the exception of the tail-feathers, which are black ; the bare skin over the eye
scarlet ; and the bill black.

Our figure is rather less than the natural size.