THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN, 87 



The material is chiefly fine dried-grass stems; with these are mixed, however, 

 a few small leaves and weed tops and quite a numl)er of feathers. The latter, 

 evidently those of the parent birds, are imbedded thronghout the substance of 

 the nest, though more numerous upon its surface, where a dozen or so ai*e 

 deposited; there may have been some loose ones lost in liandling."' 



A set of these rai-e eggs has recently been obtained by Mr. Thomas H. 

 Jackson, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, who kindly allowed me to examine 

 it, and {)laeed all the information regarding it at my disposal. This set, con- 

 taining but four eggs, in which incubation had already begun, was taken bv 

 Mr. Evan Lewis, in the vicinity of the Chicago Lakes, in Clear Creek Countv, 

 Colorado, on June 19, 1890, at an altitude of about 12,200 feet. The nest 

 itself was but a slight hollow in the ground, lined with a few small twigs, 

 lilades of grass, and a few feathers, It was about such a nest as a Bantam hen 

 would make. 



Mr. Lewis says: "The bird did not leave the nest until I stepped within a 

 foot of it; then she strutted around, dragging her wings, very much like a 

 Turkey does. When I returned to get the eggs, she allowed me to stroke her 

 with my hand, and was about as tame as an average hen is when sitting. 

 Foxes are very numerous around here, so that I did not dare to leave the eggs 

 to see if others would be laid. I saw several of these birds, both males and 

 females, the latter always between 3 and 5 o'clock p. m. The location of this 

 nest, just a1)ove timber line, on the level top of a ridge, near isolated patches 

 of dwarf willows, made me think they always nested in such places; but one 

 sitting bird I saw feeding started u]) tlie mountain, running a short distance, 

 then flew about a thousand feet, and after resting a few seconds repeated its 

 flight and disappeared over the top of the mountain. 



"I met a covey of young Ptarmigan about July 17, 1886, near the top of 

 the mountain, at an altitude of about 13,000 feet. They were not very shy, 

 and my companion and I counted them. I am not quite positi\e as to the 

 number, but am under the impression there were nine or fifteen. I judged 

 them to be nearly two weeks old. I ran after one, which tried to creej) 

 under a laro-e rock, and I readily caught it. The old bird flew around mv 

 head and came close enough to knock my hat otf, an<l as soon as we were 

 aliout 100 feet away she began to call her flock together. I never saw 

 more than two adult birds together, and should two males meet thev imme- 

 diately commence fighting, till one finally drives the other away." 



The shape of the White-tailed Ptarmigan's eggs is an elliptical ovate. 

 Their ground color varies from a creamy buff to a pale reddish or salmon 

 l)uft'. The markings are few, generally small in size and well defined. Some 

 eggs, however, are much more heavily spotted than others, and in these the 

 markings are more irregular and in tlie shape of blotches. These markings 

 vary froTn reddish brown to chocolate brown. 



' Bulletin U. S. Geological Surveys of the Territories, 2(1 series, v, 1875, p. 3. 



