turner's ptarmigan 219 



have remained more like the mainland birds. This might account 

 for the presence of light-colored birds in the center and dark-colored 

 birds at both ends, as they now exist. 



On Atka Island we found this form of ptarmigan very abundant ; 

 there seemed to be more ptarmigan here than on any island we 

 visited. There were comparatively few of them on the hillsides, 

 but in the grassy hollows and among the low, rolling hills of the 

 valleys we were constantly flushing them. They were apparently 

 mated and breeding on June 13, the day of our arrival, but we 

 failed to find any nests during the next two or three days. The 

 male usually flushed first with loud clucking notes, and the female 

 was sure to follow soon after him. 



Courtship. — They were very tame and always in pairs, so we had 

 plenty of chances to observe their courtships. On his song flight 

 the male rises 30 or 40 feet in the air and floats down again on 

 decurrent wings, giving a few rapid wing strokes before alighting; 

 sometimes, after checking his descent by rapid wing strokes just 

 above the ground, he sails along and upward to repeat the same 

 performance; during his descent, and particularly during the rapid 

 wing strokes, he utters his loud croaking notes, kruk, kuk, Jmk, huk, 

 kuh, or kTTU-ru-ru-ruy ru-ruk, a prolonged, rattling, nasal, clucking 

 sound of great carrying power. Once I saw a male chasing a female 

 in the nuptial pursuit flight; she led him a long chase up and down 

 the valley and over some low hills, until they finally settled near 

 me on the tundra, where they strutted about in plain sight. The 

 male carried his head high, with the bright orange-vermilion comb 

 over the eyes swollen and distended and with the tail erected and 

 spread as he walked about in a slow and stately manner. 



Nesting. — All we know about the nesting habits of this ptarmigan 

 is contained in the following brief statement by Lucien M. Turner 

 (1886), who discovered and described the bird: 



The nest is built amongst the rank grasses at the bases of hills and the 

 lowlands near the beach. The nest is carelessly arranged with few dried 

 grass stalks and other trash that may be near. The eggs vary from eleven to 

 seventeen, and are darker in color than those of rupestris, and but slightly in- 

 ferior in size to those of L. lagopits. A number of eggs of this species were pro- 

 cured, but broken in transportation ; hence, can give no measurements of 

 them. 



Eggs. — There are 24 eggs of this ptarmigan in the United States 

 National Museum, which do not differ in appearance from those 

 of the other Aleutian races. The measurements average 44.8 by 

 32.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 48.2 

 by 32.1, 45 by 34.5, 42.4 by 32.3, and 43.6 by 31.3 millimeters. 



Plumages. — Not much is known about the plumage changes of 

 Turner's ptarmigan. Our birds were all in full summer plumage in 



