THE WILLOW PTARMIGAN 
BY JOSEPH GRINNELL 
The name ptarmigan is applied to several species and races of 
grousc-like birds comprising the genus Lag op us. Lagopus means 
“rabbit-foot,” and refers to the chief character by which ptarmigans 
are distinguished from other members of the grouse family, namely, 
the heavy clothing of hair-like feathers which envelop the feet. In all 
but one of the species remarkable changes of plumage occur twice a 
year, and by the autumnal one a snow-white dress is acquired for the 
winter season. This, and the fact that ptarmigans live in the far 
north or on the tops of high mountains, where the climate is severe, 
makes appropriate the name snow grouse, used commonly in Alaska. 
North America has three distinct species of ptarmigans. One 
of them, the white-tailed, lives upon the snowy summits of the Rocky 
Mountains as far south as northern New Mexico. The rock ptarmi¬ 
gan inhabits mountainous country in the far north, and, as repre¬ 
sented by various subspecies, is found from Greenland across the con¬ 
tinent and on nearly every one of the long chain of Aleutian Islands. 
The third American species, the willow ptarmigan, with which the 
present essay is concerned, is most abundant on that level or rolling 
arctic prairie-land, known as tundra, which lies between the forested 
interior and the Arctic Coast. In western and northern Alaska, these 
tundras are covered with a deep layer of moss and lichens. Here or 
there in ‘draws’ or shallow valleys, are tracts of dwarf willow and 
alder. In summer the tundras are boggy, and the many ponds and 
connecting channels make traveling difficult. In winter they are 
frozen solidly, and the wind-driven snow packs into the depressions 
so that the surface is nearly smooth. 
Save for black tail-feathers, almost completely concealed when 
the bird is at rest, and the black of bill and eyes, the willow ptarmi¬ 
gan in the winter is pure white. When the white feathers first appear 
in the fall, they possess a perceptible, though faint, tinge of pink; 
but this soon fades out. 
The purely white winter dress is believed to make the birds so 
inconspicuous against the white of the landscape that they many 
times escape discovery by their enemies, the arctic fox and gyrfalcon, 
as they certainly do by the human hunter. On a day when the sky is 
overcast with dense haze, obscuring the direct rays of the sun, and 
dispersing an intense, even light, the ptarmigans are extremely hard 
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