SOUTHERN WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN 237 



ner little family, as I talked reassuringly to her, she ignored my presence. 

 Nothing must hurry the unaccustomed little feet, nothing must interfere with 

 their needed rest. Talking softly she gradually drew the brood in under 

 her motherly wings and sat there only a few yards from me, half closing one 

 eye in the sun and acting oblivious to all the world. Once the downy head of 

 a chick appeared between the fluffed-out feathers of her breast, and once she 

 preened her wing so she showed the white quills remaining from the white 

 plumage of winter. 



Her bill opened and her throat palpitated as if she were thirsty, as she 

 sat brooding the young, and I imagined that the last hours of hatching high 

 above water had been long and trying to the faithful mother. But though 

 water — clear cold mountain brooks — were below, no need of her own could 

 make her careless of her little ones. Keeping up a motherly rhythmic cluck- 

 uk-uk, cluck-uk-uk, interlarded with a variety of tender mother notes, she 

 led them down by almost imperceptible stages, slowly, gently, carefully, raising 

 a furry foot and sliding it along a little at a time, creeping low over the 

 ground with even tread, picking about as she went, while the little toddlers 

 gradually learned the use of their feet. Like a brood of downy chickens, 

 some were more yellowish, seme browner than others, but they all had dark 

 lines on head and body giving them a well-defined color pattern. Peeping 

 like little chickens, while their mother waited patiently for them they toddled 

 around, trying to hop over tiny stones and saving themselves from going on 

 their bills by stretching out wee finny wings. As chickens just out of the 

 shell instinctively pick up food from the ground, they gave little jabs at 

 the fuzzy anthers of the dryas, little knowing that pollen was the best food 

 they could find, a rich protein food from which the bees make bee bread to 

 feed their larvae. 



Plumages. — In the small, downy chick of the white-tailed ptar- 

 migan the crown, shoulders, central back, and central rump are 

 " tawny," bordered and sprinkled with black ; the rest of the head 

 shades from buffy white on the forehead to dull white on the chin 

 and throat, with black spots and bands on the front and sides of the 

 head in somewhat different patterns ; the rest of the upper parts are 

 variegated with pale buffs, grays, and black; the underparts are 

 grayish white, with a slight buffy tinge on the breast. As with all 

 other grouse, the juvenal plumage appears very early, the w T ings first 

 when the chick is very small; and the neck and head are the last to 

 be feathered. 



By the time that the young bird is half grown it is fully feathered 

 in juvenal plumage. In this the crown is barred or mottled with 

 black, white, and pale buff ; the back and rump are mainly vermic- 

 ulated or peppered with black on a grayish white to " cinnamon- 

 buff " ground color, but some feathers show larger black areas; the 

 scapulars, wing coverts, and tail coverts are similar, with more black 

 on the scapulars ; the chin and throat are grayish white, barred with 

 dusky ; the breast and flanks are pale buff, barred with black, and 

 the belly is buffy white ; the two outer primaries are white and the 

 others dusky, the tail feathers are dusky, banded and mottled with 

 * l cinnamon-buff." This plumage is hardly complete in August, 



