Willow ptarmigan complicated changes in plumage several times a year and the differing colour and pattern of the summer plumage: The willow ptarmigan often hybridises with the black grouse ("Tetrao tetrix") and the hazel grouse ("Tetrastes bonasia") and occasionally with the western capercaillie ("Tetrao urogallus"), the spruce grouse ("Falcipennis canadensis") and the rock ptarmigan ("Lagopus muta"). During the Pleistocene, the willow ptarmigan widely occurred in continental Europe. Authors who recognize paleosubspecies have named the Pleistocene willow ptarmigan "L. l. noaillensis" (though the older name "medius" might be the correct one). These marginally different birds are said to have gradually changed from the
Ptarmigan (sternwheeler) Ptarmigan (sternwheeler) Ptarmigan was a sternwheel steamboat that operated in British Columbia on the Columbia River from 1903 to 1909. "Ptarmigan" was built at Golden, BC and was the last vessel built for the Upper Columbia Navig. & Tramway Co., of which Capt. Frank P. Armstrong was the principal owner and manager. "Ptarmigan"'s engines were over 60 years old, and had been originally built for a ferry crossing the St. Lawrence River. The engines had been previously installed in two other sternwheelers on the upper Columbia River, specifically the first "Duchess", and the second "Duchess". The blunt-ended bow of "Ptarmigan"