THE WILLOW PTARMIGAN 



By JOSEPH GRINNELL 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 60 



The word Ptarmigan is applied to several species and races of grouse- 

 like birds comprising the genus Lagopus. The name was chosen appro- 

 priately, for lagopus (Latin) signifies "rabbit-foot," and refers to the chief 

 character by which ptarmigans are distinguished from other members of 

 the grouse family, namely, the heavy clothing of hair-like feathers which 

 envelops the feet. In all but one of the species remark- 

 able changes of plumage take place twice a year, 

 through which there is acquired for the winter season 

 a snow-white dress. This, and the fact that ptarmigans live in the far 

 North or on the tops of snowy mountains, gave to these birds their other 

 name, Snow Grouse, used commonly in Alaska. 



North America has three distinct species of ptarmigan. One of them, 

 the White-tailed, lives upon the snowy summits of the Rocky Mountains 

 south as far as northern New Mexico. The Rock Ptarmigan inhabits 

 the mountainous country farther north, and, as represented by various 

 subspecies, is found from Greenland across the continent and on nearly 

 every one of the long chain of Aleutian Islands. The third American 

 species, the Willow Ptarmigan, with which the present essay is concerned, 

 is most abundant on that level or rolling arctic prairie-land known as 

 tundra. This tundra extends almost unbrokenly across North America 

 from Labrador to western Alaska, and may be said, in a general way, to 

 occupy the interval between the northern limit of forest-growth and the 

 Arctic Ocean. In western and northern Alaska it is covered with a deep 

 layer of moss and lichens; and here or there in "draws," or shallow 

 valleys, are tracts of dwarfed willows and alders. 



Save for black tail-feathers, almost completely concealed when the 

 bird is at rest, and the black of the bill and eyes, the 

 Willow Ptarmigan in winter is pure white. When the A Protectlve 

 white feathers first appear, in the fall, they possess a 

 perceptible, though faint, tinge of pink ; but this soon fades out. 



The purely white winter dress is believed to make the birds so incon- 

 spicuous against the white of the landscape that many times they escape 

 discovery by their enemies, the arctic fox and gyrfalcon, as well as by the 

 human hunter. On a day when the sky is overcast with dense haze, dis- 

 persing an intense, even light, the ptarmigans are extremely hard to dis- 

 cern agains the blank whiteness of their surroundings. Even when fresh 

 t""t prints in the snow and occasional cries told of their near vicinity. I 



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