WILLOW PTARMIGAN 169 



and has a smaller, weaker bill. In full summer plum- 

 age its upper parts are deep rich chestnut, thickly and 

 finely waved with black, the tip of each feather narrow- 

 ly white. The lower throat and fore neck are chestnut, 

 the breast becoming finely cross-lined with black, which 

 increases toward the belly. The sides and flanks are 

 very dark. 



The range of the willow ptarmigan, often called the 

 willow grouse, is chiefly confined to the Arctic regions 

 in North America, reaching from Alaska, over much 

 of the British Provinces, to the Atlantic, and rarely 

 straggling south into the United States Minnesota, 

 New York and New England. Twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago it was not uncommon to find specimens of 

 this bird in the hands of taxidermists in New York, 

 the birds having presumably been shipped to that city 

 from southern Canada. 



In many parts of the North the birds are exceeding- 

 ly abundant and form no inconsiderable portion of the 

 winter food supply of the Indians, while many are 

 killed about the Hudson's Bay posts. Much of what 

 we know about these birds comes from E. W. Nel- 

 son, who made his observations on the shores of the 

 Bering Sea, and from L. M. Turner, who studied them 

 in Labrador, with his headquarters at Ungava. 



From these observations we can get a good idea of 

 the life of the willow ptarmigan. 



In winter these birds seem to be to some extent 

 migratory, and, moving southward partly, no doubt, 

 in search of food are found in considerable numbers as 



