WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 143 



carried on with great energy and undaunted resolution, 

 the feathers flying in all directions. The birds at this 

 period are usually in the transition plumage from winter 

 to summer, some red feathers having already begun 

 to appear on the neck, but the regular moult is not 

 really completely finished until several weeks later. By 

 the middle of May the birds have about all succeeded 

 in obtaining mates, and the nesting season begins. A 

 shallow depression in the ground is lined loosely with 

 dried leaves and grass, and on an average eight or 

 nine eggs are deposited; sometimes as many as thir- 

 teen and even seventeen have been found in one nest. 

 They differ greatly in detail, though having a general 

 resemblance. The shape varies from an ovate to an 

 elongate ovate, and the ground color from cream to red- 

 dish buff, frequently hidden by a mass of dark reddish, 

 blackish brown, or black blotches and vermiculations, 

 which cover nearly all the shell. Sometimes these are 

 small and mingled together in a confused mass, and again 

 they are distributed in patches, groups, or singly with 

 some indications of form, very irregular though it may 

 be, and no two eggs are exactly alike. Occasionally if, 

 after the complement of eggs has been laid, they are all 

 removed, the hen will deposit another set of about, if not 

 quite, the same number. 



The period of incubation is about seventeen days, and 

 the chicks follow the parents as soon as hatched. Only 

 one brood is raised in a season. Unlike the majority of 

 the members of the Grouse family, the male Ptarmigan 

 remains constantly in the vicinity of the nest while the 

 female is sitting, and expresses the strongest disappro- 

 bation of which he is capable at any interference w:ith the 

 process of incubation, and especially if an attempt is made 

 to carry away the eggs, uttering his hoarse call in angry 



