198 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



large beak is especially noticeable in some of the birds, more espe- 

 cially in the males," but that " some only of the males alone 

 have a noticeably large beak." He concludes by saying that this 

 character should not, in his opinion, warrant the separation of 

 this form. 



I found and collected a few specimens of willow ptarmigan near 

 Hopedale and at Ukjuktok Bay, on the northeast coast of Labrador, 

 in 1912. They were breeding there, and I was told that they also 

 breed on some of the islands. They are said to migrate farther south 

 in October and return in April and May. I have a set of eggs taken 

 near Okkak in July. Dr. Harrison F. Lewis (1928) said that this 

 species " bred in the summer of 1928 on the large island at the Bluff 

 Harbor where they had nested every year since 1925. It seems prob- 

 able that two pairs of willow ptarmigan nested on this island 

 in 1928." 



O. J. Murie has sent me the following interesting notes: 



Along the Nastopoka River, on the shore of Hudson Bay, lies a region that 

 is apparently an ideal nesting ground, for willow ptarmigan. On the morning 

 of May 13, my Eskimo guide led me inland over the granite hills ahout 

 parallel with the river. The immediate coast iu this vicinity is bare and tree- 

 less. Ten or 15 miles inland we found scattered patches of small stunted 

 spruces, covering some of the lower hills. Here we found a ptarmigan para- 

 dise. The birds were everywhere, apparently all paired, the males thrilled 

 with the energy of the mating season. It was invariably the male that flew 

 out first when we approached small clumps of willows. He went off like a 

 rocket, with a clattering racket of harsh notes and whir of wings. He would 

 generally take a commanding position on a rocky point or top of a hill and, 

 strutting pompously with head high and tail raised and spread, let out his 

 clattering crow. 



At this time of the year I was struck by the perfect blending of the plum- 

 age with the surroundings, especially in the case of the female. Her plum- 

 age at this time is speckled irregularly with various shades of brown and 

 white, in varying stages of molt, which was difficult to distinguish on a ground 

 of mosses, lichens, rocks, and willows, sprinkled with remnants of snow. The 

 females showed a tendency to keep well under cover. The males were not par- 

 ticularly difficult to see, and I spied them readily at a considerable distance on 

 occasion, but sometimes I thought I could detect a principle of protective color- 

 ing. The body was pure white, with a brown head and neck, apparently the 

 usual plumage in the season of courtship, judged from this one spring. Usually 

 the white plumage flashed out prominently, but the brown neck was lust on the 

 background of rock and moss. Although the eye was attracted at once, there 

 was a tendency to pass it over without recognizing the headless body as a 

 bird. Similarly, on a snowbank, the brown neck was seemingly detached, and 

 not a part of a bird. 



Nesting. — Turner says in his notes : 



In the vicinity of Fort Chimo, nesting of this species begins during the lat- 

 ter part of May. The nest is usually placed in a dry spot among the swamps or 

 on the hillsides where straggling bushes grow. The nest is merely a depres- 

 sion in the mosses and contains a few blades and stalks of grass together 



