WILLOW grouse; white ptarmigan. 171 



from flakes of snow. In the summer season they feed 

 chiefly on the berries of the alpine arbutus ariia other 

 shrubs and plants, which are laid bare by the thaw, and 

 which do not disappear until they are re])laced by a new 

 crop. They incubate about the beginning of June, at 

 which time the females moult. The males assume their 

 red-colored plumage as soon as the rocks and eminences 

 become bare, at which time they are in the habit of stand- 

 ing upon large stones, calling in a loud and croaking voice 

 to their mates, which, still in their white wintry garb, arc 

 hidden in the snows below. These birds are more usually 

 in motion in the milder light of night than in the broa(i 

 glare of day. 



Captain Blakiston traced this Grouse across the interior 

 from Hutlson Bay to near the Rocky Mountains, and ol)- 

 tained a single specimen near Fort Carlton. It does not 

 come down every winter, however, so far south on the 

 Upper Saskatchewan. Near Lake Winnipeg, at Fort 

 Cumberland, and to the eastward, they are common every 

 winter, and numbers are obtained from the shores of Hud- 

 son's Bay. Mr. Ross gives this species as common on the 

 Mackenzie. Mr. Robert Mac Farlane found it around Fort 

 Anderson, where, he writes, it was always very numerous 

 in that quarter at all seasons, and generally not difficult of 

 approach. During the breeding season the males were to 

 be found perched upon trees and stumps in the vicinity of 

 the nest, while the female would rarely leave the latter 

 until almost trodden on. They are also said, by Mr. Mac 

 Farlane, to assume their summer plumage earlier than the 

 males, diflFering in this statement from Dr. Richardson's. 

 Their nest is alwaj's on the ground, and consists only of a 

 few decayed leaves placed in a depression. Sometimes 

 other materials, such as hay, moss, feathers, etc., are found. 

 While incubating, the female occasionally sits so close as 

 to allow herself to be caught rather than leave the nest. 



They begin to nest early in June, varying a little with 

 the season, not commencing so soon where the ground at 

 that period was still covered with snow. Eggs taken from 



