WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 143 
carried on with great energy and undaunted resolution, 
the feathers flying in all directions. The birds at this 
period are usually in the transition plumage from winter 
to summer, some red feathers having already begun 
to appear on the neck, but the regular moult is not 
really completely finished until several weeks later. By 
the middle of May the birds have about all succeeded 
in obtaining mates, and the nesting season begins. A 
shallow depression in the ground is lined loosely with 
dried leaves and grass, and on an average eight or 
nine eggs are deposited; sometimes as many as thir- 
teen and even seventeen have been found in one nest. 
They differ greatly in detail, though having a general 
resemblance. The shape varies from an ovate to. an 
elongate ovate, and the ground color from cream to red- 
dish buff, frequently hidden by a mass of dark reddish, 
blackish brown, or black blotches and vermiculations, 
which cover nearly all the shell. Sometimes these are 
small and mingled together in a confused mass, and again 
they are distributed in patches, groups, or singly with 
some indications of form, very irregular though it may 
be, and no two eggs are exactly alike. Occasionally if, 
after the complement of eggs has been laid, they are all 
removed, the hen will deposit another set of about, if not 
quite, the same number. 
The period of incubation is about seventeen days, and 
the chicks follow the parents as soon as hatched. Only 
one brood is raised in a season. Unlike the majority of 
the members of the Grouse family, the male Ptarmigan 
remains constantly in the vicinity of the nest while the 
female is sitting, and expresses the strongest disappro- 
bation of which he is capable at any interference with the 
process of incubation, and especially if an attempt is made 
to carry away the eggs, uttering his hoarse call in angry 
