THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN. 



595 



liave a mellow, rolling note, wliich is not unlike Biddy's brooding cry. It is 

 meant for menace, but its utterance only increases one's desire to pick the 

 bird up and fondle it. 



For a nesting site the female usually chooses a sloping, grass-covered 

 hillside, or a stretch of gravelly soil half-covered by vegetation. In this she 

 makes a considerable depression, lines it carefully with grass and twigs, 

 with some feathers from her own breast, and deposits eggs, from six to ten, 

 or even twelve, in number. These resemble the eggs of the Sooty Grouse 

 (Dcndragapus obscurus fuligiiiosus) much more than they do those of other 

 speciesof 

 Ptarmigan, since 

 they are of a 

 warm Ijutf}" or 

 pale ruddy hue, 

 dotted and spot- 

 ted, b u t not 

 e X t e n s i \' e 1 y 

 blotched, w i t h 

 reddish brown. 



The time cho- 

 sen for nesting 

 depends largely 

 upon the season 

 and the relative 

 amount of snow- 

 fall, which is so 

 variable in our 

 mountains. 

 Chicks are 

 brought off by 

 the 4th of July 

 some years, and 

 again not till 

 August. Mr. C. 

 C. Cornell is of 

 opinion that the 

 Ptarmigans on 

 Mount Baker 

 raise two broods 

 in a season, and 



affirms that the phuto t^kcn Jniy 6. isos, tv ir l. ujl.svu. 



first brood is si,uiskin falls. 



