PTARMIGAN SHOOTING 393 
each gun occupies a certain point or station, and shoots 
at all the birds that pass or alight in his vicinity. The 
ladies keep watch for those that may alight near the 
houses. The bags vary, of course, according to the 
skill of the shooter and his method of shooting. If 
he is there for business he will take all the pot shots. 
He can frequently get five or six in one shot. I have 
seen fourteen killed in a single shot. A few will 
only shoot on the wing, but there are many days when 
the wing shooter comes out ahead. The biggest bag 
I ever made (it was in 1885) shooting at flying birds 
was eighty-two brace in one morning. At Caribou 
Island, that winter, nets were tried, but they were not 
very successful, more being got by shooting. Indians 
frequently snare them by setting their snares around 
willow clumps where the birds feed. It is a very sim- 
ple arrangement. A twig is stuck in the snow, a twine 
snare is tied to it, a very light support placed under it 
to hold it in position, and it is ready. In walking 
around the bird runs into it, then tries to rise on feel- 
ing the snare, only to tighten the noose. There is a 
little fluttering, and it is all over.” 
Such is the abundance of the willow ptarmigan, and 
sometimes of the rock ptarmigan as well, though this 
last is not so numerous, and such is the way in which 
they are killed for food. 
Rarely it happens that the earnest ornithologist or 
the big-game hunter in search of a new sensation toils 
laboriously up to the home of the white-tailed ptarmi- 
gan, carrying his shotgun with him. When he reaches 
