l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



places but we saw no evidence of it and no, apparently, breeding 

 pairs. They were also noted on Tanaga Island and at Chernofski 

 on Unalaska Island. 



LAGOPUS RUPESTRIS NELSONI 



Nelson's Ptarmigan 

 The best known of the Aleutian Ptarmigan inhabits Unalaska 

 Island and Amaknak Island, which are separated only by a narrow 

 channel. About Iliuliuk Village on Unalaska Ptarmigan are scarce 

 and wild, having been persistently hunted by the inhabitants, but 

 across the channel on x-\maknak, where most of our birds were taken, 

 we found them common and tame on the steep sloping sides of a 

 mountain locally known as " Ballyhoo." At the time of our visit, 

 June 5 and 9 inclusive, the Ptarmigan were apparently just mating 

 and were scattered all over the sides of the mountain. We found 

 no nests and judging from our experience elsewhere we inferred 

 that they would come down to lower levels to nest in the grassy 

 hollows. A pair of birds could often be located by seeing the song 

 flight of the male, his white wings being quite conspicuous at a great 

 distance as he flies thirty or forty feet upwards and floats or flutters 

 downwards, sometimes scaling on decurrent wings, uttering all the 

 time his loud clucking, rattling call. The male may often be seen 

 sitting on his favorite perch on some prominent hummock where he 

 has a good outlook, but where he is equally conspicuous ; he 

 apparently uses the same hummock regularly for it is usually well 

 decorated with dung and feathers. The female is very inconspicuous 

 and moves about very deliberately where she matches her surround- 

 ings perfectly. 



LAGOPUS RUPESTRIS ATKHENSIS 



Turner's Ptarmigan 



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. They were very tame and we had plenty of oppor- 

 tunities to observe and study their movements, as they conducted 



