PTARMIGANS. 185 



the lichens being procured in winter by digging away the 

 snow. The grouse of Alaska seem to live entirely on 

 willow-buds in winter, judging from the fact that two 

 handfuls of them were found in the crop of a dead bird. 

 This makes their flesh so bitter that it can hardly be 

 eaten by whites, and even the Indians do not care for it. 

 To macerate such indigestible material, the birds have to 

 use large quantities of gravel, and trappers, knowing this, 

 they manage to capture them in large numbers during 

 the winter with the aid of a small quantity of this precious 

 material. The nets used by trappers in some portions of 

 British America are about twelve feet square, and 

 stretched on wooden frames. These are placed upon the 

 ice of a river or a lake, about two or three hundred yards 

 from a line of willows, and a mound of snow, which is 

 generously strewn with gravel, is erected near the center 

 of each. One side of the net is propped up by a stick 

 about four feet in length, to which a very long cord is 

 attached; this cord is next carried into the thicket, and 

 a party of men commence beating the willows in a me- 

 thodical manner, and driving out the grouse as if they 

 Avere so many barn-yard fowls, for they are as tame as 

 they can be, considering their mode of life. When they 

 reach the opening and see the gravel heap, they rush for 

 it in the most eager manner, and when a large number is 

 grouped around it, one of the men pulls the string con- 

 cealed in the shrubbery. This causes the wooden prop 

 to give way, the net falls, and captures all within its 

 limits. A party of four or five men may secure from 

 two hundred to seven hundred ptarmigans in a day with 

 this simple contrivance, as they catch from twenty to 

 fifty every time it falls. 



The birds are exceedingly abundant m Alaska, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Dall; February and March being known as the 

 "grouse months," on account of the numbers found 

 scattered all over the country. They begin to change 



