HUNTING RAMS 209 



their horns, I judged one to be five years old, the other, 

 two or three. At first I thought they were detached 

 members of the band hurrying back to join it. But reach- 

 ing the spur they caught sight of the sheep above, ap- 

 proached cautiously to within a hundred yards and 

 stopped, as all the rams jumped up and watched them. 

 Several times they circled about the band without ap- 

 proaching nearer, while the rams in the band appeared 

 to assume a threatening attitude. Finally they passed 

 the band without attempting to enter it, and disappeared 

 around the slope. 



Repeated observations of the habits of sheep in later 

 years gives me a clue to the actions of these two rams. 

 They were members of another band of rams living in 

 another part of the ranges, and having been separated 

 by fright, or for some other reason, were probably trying 

 to regain their own band, composed of members with 

 which they had been born and reared. Bands of sheep 

 have a strong tendency to exclude foreign members, and 

 it is only after a single sheep or two have hovered about 

 another band for days, sometimes even for weeks, that 

 its members relax and admit the outsiders on terms of 

 intimacy. 



Once a hen ptarmigan came through the dwarf-birch 

 within three feet of me, while her chicks surrounded me 

 as I sat motionless, until the mother, becoming suspicious, 

 began to cluck, when all the chicks ran to her and she 

 withdrew into the bush. The curiosity of the ground- 

 squirrels was aroused, for several came almost to my feet, 

 and after sitting up and chattering at me, quickly scam- 



