204 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
It is hardly to be supposed that these birds would do 
well on food other than that to which they are accus- 
tomed in their home among the high mountains, and 
any attempt to domesticate them would be foredoomed 
to failure. It is not improbable that if some one who 
resided high up in the mountains should try to rear 
the young he might succeed, but they could not be 
taken away from the mountains where they belong. 
In summer or autumn single birds are often met 
with high up on the peaks, presumably the males whose 
mates are then busy with their nests or young, and 
these individual birds usually seem wild. They will 
often stand and look until quite closely approached, 
and then run swiftly fifteen or twenty yards, and then 
stopping, stand erect and watch until again approached. 
While nowhere very abundant, the white-tailed 
ptarmigan is yet numerous on all the higher moun- 
tains which suit the requirements of its life. Half a 
dozen broods may be found within a range of two 
miles along the mountain-top, while the number of 
eggs varies from five or six to fourteen or fifteen. 
Occasionally, at the approach of winter, a considerable 
number of the birds will be found together, but I have 
not seen more than twenty-five or thirty in a flock. 
Though, in summer, insects, flowers of the heather, 
berries and seeds undoubtedly constitute a large part 
of the white-tailed ptarmigan’s food, nevertheless I 
believe that at all seasons they feed to a considerable 
extent on the buds and tips of the willow, the largest 
shrubs which grow near the tops of the mountains. On 
