NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



like the ptarmigan, snow-mammals like the Alpine 

 hare, besides lemmings and mice, and even fishes. 

 It has a wide distribution and a successful life ; 

 it seems indifferent to storms, except in so far as 

 they destroy its food ; it is wary but fearless, and a 

 pair of them will attack a man who comes near the 

 nest among the reindeer moss. The male is said 

 to feed the mother and her large brood. The 

 harmony between the plumage and the snowflakes 

 is but one expression of the successful balance that 

 this great bird has struck between its own strong 

 nature and the hardness of the outer world. " The 

 cry, seldom heard, is wild and wailing," but it is a 

 cry of victory, for the bird has overcome its diffi- 

 culties and is master of its fate. There seems a 

 suggestion of this in its fierce eyes. 



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