46 GROUSE FAMILY. 



ment ; and in Europe, during the winter, they are carried in 

 thousands to the market of Bergen in Norway, and when half- 

 roasted or jerked, are put into barrels and transported to other 

 countries as an article of commerce. 



Willow Grouse, or Large Ptarmigan. 



This larger species, called the Willow Grouse by Hearne, the 

 Wood Grouse of the Norwegians, is another inhabitant of both 

 continents, extending its residence to the eternal limits of the 

 polar ice. In America they abound around Hudson Bay, 

 where they are said to breed along the coast, making their 

 nests on dry ridges on the ground. In the ancient continent 

 they shelter their nests in the high tufts of the heath, and in 

 the dwarf willows. Their eggs, lo to X2, are longer than 

 those of the preceding species, of a muddy white, or inclining 

 to pale rufous, covered and marbled with great numbers of 

 spots, of the color of clotted blood. They even breed in Lab- 

 rador about the beginning of June. According to Audubon, 

 they are sometimes seen in the State of Maine and around 

 Lake Michigan. This species also appears to be monogamous, 

 as both sexes remain together and show an equal anxiety for 

 the safety of their brood. 



It is somewhat remarkable that this species, still more boreal 

 than the Common Ptarmigan in Europe and Asia, should con- 

 stantly inhabit to the south of that species in North America, 

 where it seems, as it were, to have usurped its residence. The 

 general habits of these birds are very similar to those of the 

 preceding. Like them, they become gregarious at the setting 

 in of winter, roaming after their food in flocks of as many as 

 two hundred, living then and at most seasons on the tops, 

 buds, and even seeds of the dwarf-willow, and hence called 

 Willow Partridges. They also subsist on most kinds of north- 

 ern berries, and many other kinds of buds and leaves, with the 

 tops of the heath and the seeds of the birch. As food, this 

 species is preferred to the smaller Ptarmigan. 



Nuttall followed Audubon in thus separating this species and 

 recognizing as a distinct form the White Ptarmigan, — the ameri- 



