198 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
is no wilder than the average domestic hen in the 
same situation. 
The following very interesting account of this bird 
appears in Dr. Coues’ “Birds of the Northwest,” for 
which it was prepared by Mr. Trippe; it relates en- 
tirely to the species in Colorado: ‘The white-tailed 
ptarmigan is a very: abundant bird on the main range, 
living entirely above timber line the year round, ex- 
cept during the severest part of the winter, when it 
descends into the timber for shelter and food, occasion- 
ally straggling as low as 10,000 feet. It begins 
to change color about the middle of March, when a few 
specks of blackish brown begin to appear in the plum- 
age of the oldest males, but the change is very slow, 
and it is late in April before there is much black visible, 
and the close of May or early in June before the sum- 
mer plumage is perfect. The ptarmigan builds its 
nest in the latter part of June and commences hatch- 
ing toward the close of the month, or early in July. 
The nest—which is almost always placed on or near 
the summit of the ridge, or spur, many hundred feet 
above timber line-—is merely a depression in the ground, 
lined with a few straws and white feathers from the 
mother’s breast. The eggs are eight in number, of a 
light buff brown, thickly sprinkled with spots of dark 
chocolate brown, somewhat thicker at the larger end. 
While on her nest the bird is very tame. Once, while 
walking near the summit of the range, I chanced to 
look down and saw a ptarmigan in the grass at my very 
feet ; at the next step I should have trodden upon her. 
