ROCK PTARMIGAN 209 



approached within shooting distance. Warm, damp, weather with gusty wind 

 is best suited for hunting this ptarmigan. 



I have often been amused at these birds' actions when descending from a 

 high bluff to the level ground below. If there is a place that gradually slopes 

 to the bottom, they seem to prefer to slide or tumble down rather than take 

 flight. Just back of my house, and only a hundred or so yards, there was a 

 bluff nearly 100 feet in height. This was the side of a level tract of ground 

 above, and to it great numbers of " rockers " came every morning either to sun 

 themselves or to descend to tbe lower ground nearer the houses and beyond. 

 Their growling and " snoring " could be heard nearly every morning. I often 

 watched them descend. Some individuals would push their feet forward and 

 with outspread tail on the snow slide to the bottom, while others would roll 

 and tumble over and over until they came to the level ground, where they ran 

 as unconcernedly as birds could do. 



Voice. — Mr. Whitaker likens the call of this ptarmigan to "the 

 tattoo of a woodpecker on an especially mellow tree." Mr. Hersey 

 describes it as " a low guttural croak reminding me of the spring 

 song of the crow." O. J. Murie has sent me the following notes : 



When slightly alarmed or annoyed by too close approach, these birds uttered 

 a strange sound, like a short interrupted purr — prrt! prrt! This usually indi- 

 cated that they were about to fly. Later, in spring, I heard a more prolonged 

 utterance, possibly the " crowing " of this quiet bird. On several occasions in 

 May, when I disturbed a group of these birds, some of them produced this 

 sound, which might be described as a rolling " snore " — k-r-r-r-a-r-r-r-uk— 

 r-r-r-a, plainly varied by a change in the middle which resolves it into three 

 parts. Once when I shot a male for a specimen, the female called with a 

 " whining " note. 



Doctor Noble (1919) writes: 



On August 24th, during a heavy rainstorm, while making my way across one 

 of these fields of grotesquely shaped stones, I came suddenly upon an old male 

 bird. It had just emerged from between two great blocks, and stood looking 

 at me. After a few moments' hesitation, it stretched out its neck and gave 

 a long cackle, unlike any call I had ever heard. It was a crescendo of clucks, 

 somewhat pheasant-like in quality — kulc, kuk, kuk, kuk — each syllable stronger 

 and of a higher pitch than the last. 



Ludlow Griscom (1926) had a similar experience : 

 An old grey cock suddenly appeared on the top of a rock in a field of huge 

 boulders, not more than fifty feet from me. It stretched its neck, cackled 

 loudly and long, and exhibited no fear at all as I drew nearer. It then dis- 

 appeared, but for some seconds I could hear it clucking to itself in great 

 dissatisfaction as it threaded its way through the maze of its chosen home. 



Fall. — From the northern portions of its range the rock ptarmigan 

 makes quite extensive migrations. Capt. Moses Bartlett told me, 

 and others have confirmed it, that during the last of September 

 beginning with the first heavy snow squalls and lasting up to about 

 the middle of October, a heavy flight of ptarmigan occurs across 

 Hudson Straits to Cape Chidley, hundreds of birds being in sight 

 at one time. Often they alight on ships and are easily caught. A 



