592 THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN, 
The processes of nature are so slow, however, that we shall never live to 
he extermination of the Ptarmigan, unless the 
operation is unduly 
hastened by the unlawful det 
mands made upon them by hungry campers. Al 
pon any ridge of rock or grass-covered slope above timber 
line in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains, 
] 
ho likely to oceur 1 
the local range of these birds is 
much restricted, and many isolated colonies have already been destroved., 
‘ ec} Ihy t] mt . 
specially HWOSe WW Lire 
vicinity of mining camps 
CLOUD CAP 
- gal ‘ ua unsuspicious and confiding to a degree unprece 
dented in the case of anv othe \merican bird This is partly owing to the 
secluded character f their haunts, so that thev have not learned the fear of 
men; and | | le mstinctive reliance which they place in their protectin 
colorat \ t hen will not leave her nest until she is all but trampled 
n, and once disturbed, she will even allow herself to be lifted from the ground 
without resistance lhe 
cock is usually more wary. Once, while encamped in 
