188 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
are white. The lores and top of the head are black, 
the ends of the feathers on the latter being tipped with 
brown. Breast regularly barred with blackish and 
light brown, and the sides the same, but with finer 
black bars; beneath, white. 
The summer plumage of the female is brighter, yel- 
lowish or reddish, spotted and barred with black, and 
having the quills and secondaries always white. The 
lower plumage is somewhat paler and grayer; the dot- 
tings and barrings are black, often quite fine; yet the 
barrings show a tendency to form spots and heavier 
bars. The head and neck are more yellowish and 
barred with dusky. 
The rock ptarmigan, in its various forms, is scat- 
tered over Arctic America in general, except the ex- 
treme north, including Greenland and the Aleutian 
Islands, and is found southeast as far as the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, occurring on Anticosti Island. 
Mr. Nelson reports it a common resident of the 
mainland of Alaska, where it inhabits the higher 
ground during the summer, but is driven down by 
winter to the lower levels. Its habits do not appear 
to differ greatly from those of the common willow 
ptarmigan. It breeds in large numbers on the Barren 
Grounds, from which Mr. MacFarlane reported on its 
breeding habits, nests and eggs. It does not appear to 
be so prolific a bird as the willow ptarmigan, its eggs 
being fewer in number and apparently running from 
nine down to four or five. The female sits closely on 
her eggs, and her color harmonizes so well with that 
