THE SMALL NEIGHBORS OF BIG GAME 317 



frying-pan. Later on we found two flocks on the bald, 

 rocky summit of Bird Mountain, a most weird place in 

 which to find members of the Grouse Family. 



The Ptarmigan is a brave bird, or it would not choose 

 as its home the rugged rocks and storm-beaten slopes 

 above timberline. Although its flesh is excellent, and on 

 the mountain-tops a great delicacy, we were not at all 

 keen in seeking it. We did not need more than a sample 

 of Ptarmigan, and that was all we took. They were such 

 queer little creatures, and so companionable on the sum- 

 mits, we had not the heart to pursue them for food. 



It is natural for people to be specially interested in 

 birds and mammals which live under conditions fraught 

 with great danger, or with difficulty to the party of the 

 first part. Take the Harlequin Duck, for example, — a 

 bird so fantastically painted by Nature, with white bars 

 and stripes and splashes on a bluish background, that the 

 finished effect suggests the painted markings of a clown. 



This bird loves rough water, and in the Elk River and 

 its tributaries you will find it from early spring until the 

 end of September. It breeds in that region. If you see 

 it at all, it will be in the roughest water, perhaps standing 

 upon a stone in the centre of a roaring rapid, or bobbing 

 like a cork on the boiling flood at the foot of some cascade. 

 Standing on a dry shelf in a museum, or lying as a dry 

 skin in the black obscurity of a smelly drawer, the Harle- 

 quin Duck is not seen at its best. But place it in its natural 

 haunts, — a roaring mountain stream, in a setting of rocks, 

 enamelled with evergreen timber, — as shown in Mr. 

 Phillips's beautiful photograph, and this is a grand bird. 



