The White-Tailed Ptarmigan {Lagopus leucurus) 



By C. Hart Merriam 



Length : 14 inches. 



The \Miite-tailed Ptarmigan is an inhabitant of the alpine summits of the 

 mountain ranges of western North America. Its breeding range is coincident with 

 its geographical distribution and extends from Alaska to New Mexico, but is lim- 

 ited to the higher mountains and is always above timber line. This bird rarely 

 leaves these great heights except in the most severe weather of winter, when it 

 rarely descends below an altitude of eight thousand feet, though it has been taken 

 at a height of only two thousand feet. 



It is a beautiful bird and an excellent illustration of protective coloration, the 

 darker color of the summer plumage well harmonizing with its somber surround- 

 ings, while the white of its winter dress matches the snow of the mountain sides. 

 When sitting on its nest "so nearly does the bird resemble the gray boulders which 

 surround her on every side, that the discovery of the nest is largely due to acci- 

 dent." At such a time, the bird is flushed with difficulty. One observer writes : 

 ''Twice have I escaped stepping upon a sitting ptarmigan by only an inch or so, 

 and once I reined in my horse at a time when another step would have crushed 

 out the life of a brood of nine chicks, but an hour or so from the tgg. In this case 

 the parent crouched at the horse's feet and, though in momentary danger of being 

 stepped on, made no attempt to escape until I had dismounted and put out my hand 

 to catch her. She then fluttered to the top of a rock a few feet distant, and 

 watched me as I handled the young, constantly uttering low anxious protests." It 

 is said that sitting ptarmigans have been lifted from their nests and the eggs 

 handled, the bird simply uttering an occasional sound not unlike that of a sitting 

 hen. In the autumn the ptarmigan is a much shyer bird and when closely 

 approached will "run about, holding the tail elevated and looking very much like 

 a white fan-tail pigeon." 



Major Bendire in his "Life Histories of North American Birds," gives the 

 notes of Mr. Dennis Gale, who studied the habits of two broods of White-tailed 

 Ptarmigans ; one containing seven and the other five chicks. He believed that the 

 males took no part in the parental cares, but the mother birds were very devoted. 

 He says : "There was a disposition, clearly proven with the chicks of both broods, 

 to hide when the hen signaled danger; but some of the older ones flushed and 

 flew at least fifty yards. The females were very tame and would not flush; in 

 fact, they could not be induced by mild treatment to leave the place where the 

 young had hidden. They walked around me so close that I could have touched 

 them with my hand, and showed a marked concern for their broods, clucking in 

 a manner very similar to our domestic hen." 



No description will more graphically portray the characteristics of the White- 

 tailed Ptarmigan than that ])reparcd l)y Mr. T. M. Tri])pe for Dr. Coues' "Birds 

 of the North-\\'cst.'' Mr. Trippe studied this l)ird in the mountainous regions of 



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