WILLOW PTARMIGAN 171 



puts a temporary stop to their proceedings. About 

 the fifth or fifteenth of this month the first dark feath- 

 ers commence to appear about the heads and necks of 

 the males. During some seasons the males make 

 scarcely any progress in changing their plumage up 

 to the middle of May, when I have frequently seen 

 them with only a trace of dark about the head and 

 neck. In the spring of 1878 the first males were heard 

 calling on the 26th of April, and on April 27th, in 

 1879, the males were just commencing to moult, show- 

 ing a few dark feathers, but these seasons were un- 

 usually late. In autumn the change frequently com- 

 mences the last of September and by the first of 

 October it is well under way, the winter moult being 

 completed toward the end of this month. . . . 



"At the Yukon mouth, on the evening of May 24th, 

 these ptarmigan were heard uttering their hoarse notes 

 all about. As we were sitting by the tent my in- 

 terpreter took my rifle and, going off a short distance, 

 worked a lump of snow to about the size of one of 

 these birds. Fixing a bunch of dark-brown moss on 

 one end of the snow to represent the bird's head, he 

 set his decoy upon a bare mossy knoll; then retiring a 

 short distance behind the knoll he began imitating the 

 call of the male until a bird came whirring along and 

 taking up the gauntlet lit close by this supposed rival 

 and fell a victim to the ruse. 



. . . At this time the males were continually 

 pursuing each other or holding possession of prominent 

 knolls, frequently rising thence five to ten yards in 



