THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN. 591 
General Range.—High mountains of Oregon and Washington, north to 
Alaska. 
Range in Washington.—Central range and higher peaks of the Cascades 
and (probably) the Olympic Mountains. 
Authorities |“ White-tailed ptarmigan,’ Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 
(i885)22)|) sBendire sites Elist ING AS Birds, Vol) Ll; 1892p. 834 01. Rh: DE. 
Specimens.—Prov. B. E. 
AS the Bluebird mediates between earth and sky, so does the Ptarmigan 
between snow and heather. Its plumage, white in winter and mottled gray 
in summer, is an exact counterpart of its chosen surroundings; and its simple 
tastes are satisfied with the fare of browse, berries, and chance insects which 
is obtainable upon our highest mountains above the timber-line. Permanent 
Taken on Mt. Rainier From a Photograph, Copyright, 1908, by W. L. Dawson. 
THE SLUISKIN PTARMIGAN—BROADSIDE. 
residence in the case of any species hints at antiquity, but as one studies 
these demure birds in their dwindling fastnesses of rock and ice, he cannot 
help thinking of that elder time when ice prevailed over all the landscape, 
and when these hardy Eskimos of the bird-world may have been the dominant 
species in Washington. 
