\\2 A. L. V. Manniche. 



In the heavy snowmasses on the leeside of the rock they digged 

 holes some 20 centimeter deep, just large enough for the body of 

 the birds, and here they spent their nights apparently without ever 

 altering position judging from the manner, in which the excrements 

 were deposited. When several Ptarmigans had spent a night in 

 company, their holes were always placed within a rather narrow 

 circumference sometimes nearer and sometimes at a longer distance, 

 but never quite close to each other. The Ptarmigans would also 

 often spend their nights in narrow ravines in the rocks filled up 

 with snow. 



Sometimes I found my old foot-prints taken possession of by 

 the Ptarmigans as night-quarters. They were by night not seldom 

 frightened out of their holes by Polar Foxes and Ermines, which 

 could be easily seen on newfallen snow. I found, however, in no 

 case signs, that Ptarmigans were caught in this way. 



The Ptarmigans proved incredibly fearless or perhaps more 

 correctly indolent towards human beings. When the birds had 

 eaten heavily, they used to sit or lie immovable on the snow at the 

 place, where they last had found their food, and then they were 

 extremely difficult to distinguish from the surroundings. Under such 

 circumstances, they could often hardly be driven from their lair in 

 the snow, but could be shot down one by one. When starteled 

 from their resting-place, they would sometimes only run some paces 

 away to scrape a new hole by rapid movements of their feet. 



When the birds walked around on a spot bare of snow seeking 

 food, they did not behave so sluggishly, but still they could be ap- 

 proached within some 3 to 4 metres or even nearer. The females 

 seemed least patient towards human approach. 



When a female Ptarmigan was going to fly up, she would raise 

 the feathers on the back of her head to a pointed crest and lay the 

 tips of her wings on the upper rump uttering a suffocated clucking, 

 that could best be compared with the call oï Fringilla montif ring ilia; 

 at the same time she would execute some courtseying movements 

 with her head and the forepart of her body. 



Behaviour like this may, however, also express her especial 

 delight. 



Just after a heavy snow-storm, that covered all the earth evenly 

 with snow, the Ptarmigans would prove extremely shy. For a few 

 moments at a time they would settle on summits of rocks or stones, 

 that reach over the snow, and then by a rapid soundless flight 

 disappear around corners of rocks through deep ravines or out over 

 extensive plains. When the Ptarmigans after some hours had found 

 places with food, they would again become tranquil. 



