238 The Willow Ptarmigan 



have often found myself to be within but a few yards of the birds before 

 they would take flight with a startling whirr of wings and hoarse notes of 

 alarm. Then, as one would alight at some distance, it would seemingly 

 vanish from the sight, frequently defying rediscovery. 



On the occasional cloudless day, when the sun shines unobstructedly, 

 even white objects are brought out in sharp relief by their long, dark 

 shadows, cast upon the snow. If approached then, at right angles to the 

 rays from the sun, the ptarmigans may be discerned at the distance of 

 several hundred yards ; but they are then shy, for they have a marvelous 

 way of appearing to know whether or not the hunter is actually aware of 

 their exact position. 



During the eight months of winter Willow Ptarmigans feed upon the 



buds and tender terminal twigs of the dwarf alder and 



Winter willow and virtually nothing else, save that quartz 



gravel is regularly gathered from the river-bars, where 



the wind bares the ground of snow. 



The Willow Ptarmigan is by nature gregarious. Especially is this 

 trait exhibited in the autumn months, when in the most northern localities 

 a partial migration is taken a few hundred miles to the south, or into great 

 valleys where more food and better cover are afforded, for the birds show 

 a predilection for the vicinity of brush-patches and tracts of stunted 

 spruce-trees. Frequently they escape from the dash of a falcon by taking 

 refuge in a bush, among whose stems the snow rests lightly, and into 

 which the frightened bird is able to plunge quite out of sight. 



In the early spring, long before the thaw commences in earnest, the 



male ptarmigan begins to change to a rich chestnut-brown color on the 



head and chest, and a bright red comb develops above each eye. For a 



time, in April and early May, the males, with their deep brown mantles 



and white bodies, are very conspicuous. They are then more noisy than 



at any other season,- uttering, at frequent intervals until late dusk, a 



low, harsh cackle, roughly imitated in the Eskimo 



. Chan ^ es name for the Willow Ptarmigan, A-kaze-rh-gak. The 



male wears this special courting-plumage until June, 



when another change, involving the whole body-plumage, leads to a 



brown-black-and-buff plumage, which is worn until autumn. 



The females, meanwhile, change rapidly in early May, about the time 

 the snow begins to disappear, to a mottled-and-barred, black-and-brown 

 coloration. In this "summer protective" plumage the birds of both sexes 

 are as difficult to see against the green, brown and gray of the open tundra, 

 as they were in winter plumage against the white landscape. 



All these remarkable changes in appearance are the result of molts, 

 by which feathers of one color fall out and new ones of a different color 

 grow in. In the autumn, exactly the same process leads from the brown 

 and mottled coloring of both old birds and young-of-the-year to the pure 

 white of winter dress. But while in the snring molt the feathers of the 

 head, neck, and back are the first to be replaced, in the fall these are the 



