DIXON 'S PTARMIGAN" 223 



nills. In the distance was seen what, apparently, was a lively fight between 

 two birds. There was only one round. Several times birds when routed 

 whirled aloft 50 feet or so and then settled again slowly, purring loudly and 

 perhaps threateningly, though what this manoeuvre was for was not clear. 

 Several were shot with the .22 rifle, but they were very tenacious of life and a 

 shot through the body with a hollow-point seldom actually killed them. Some 

 so hit flew a hundred yards before falling. Some of the birds were quite wild, 

 others comparatively tame. They were wildest during the cold, blustery snow 

 squalls. 



LAGOPUS RUPESTRIS DIXONI (Grinnell) 



DIXON'S PTARMIGAN 



HABITS 



Dixon's ptarmigan is one of the many dark-colored races so charac- 

 teristic of the humid coast belt of the northwest. It was discovered 

 by Joseph Dixon and was named for him by Dr. Joseph Grinnell 

 (1909), who ascribed to it the following characters: "Resembling 

 Lag opus rupestris nelsonl in corresponding plumage, but much 

 darker; in extreme blackness of coloration nearly like Lagopus ever- 

 mannh but feathers of chest and back more or less finely vermiculated 

 with hazel." 



Dixon's account (Grinnell et al., 1909) of securing the first speci- 

 mens is interesting and gives an idea of the inaccessible haunts of this 

 bird : 



I was crawling down a ledge on the north side of the rocky summit of a 

 mountain at 2700 feet altitude. About twenty-five feet below me a sharp rock 

 jutted out, forming the crest of a hundred-foot cliff. I had glanced along the 

 ledge below but saw nothing, when suddenly a gray-backed ptarmigan rose 

 from a bunch of heather on a narrow ledge and trotted out on a jutting rock, 

 bobbing its head and watching me intently the while. I fired a light charge at 

 the bird which dropped over the cliff. At the report two other ptarmigan 

 jumped up and started swiftly away. I dropped one with the remaining barrel. 

 Then I began the descent to retrieve the birds. By going down to one side of the 

 cliff I had almost reached its base when I came to a sheer drop ; so I had to 

 dig my fingers into the crevices and work my way back up again. By going a 

 long way around I finally reached a twenty-foot snow drift at the foot of the 

 cliff and there I found my two birds dead. Both had their crops stuffed with 

 heather buds. 



George Willett (1914) says of its haunts: 



During the summer months these birds keep well up toward the summits of 

 the mountain ranges, above timber line, where they feed on heather buds and 

 berries. Owing to the difficulties in ascending these mountains, specimens are 

 hard to secure at this season. They apparently move in bodies from one 

 section of the mountains to another, and locating them is largely a matter of 

 luck. I have been in sections of the mountains where sign less than a week old 

 was abundant, but the most diligent search failed to locate a single bird. 

 Whether these changes of location are due to the weather or food supply I am 

 unable to state. 



