WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN 195 



tudes. Rarely the eagle's broad pinions cast their dark 

 shadow over snowfield and rock slope, but the eagle 

 is generally in search of larger game, the tender young 

 of the big horn or of the white goat. The great bears 

 that in early summer prowl over the range, looking for 

 the young grass or digging out mice, or later pick- 

 ing the luscious huckleberries, do not give a thought 

 to the ptarmigan, unless by chance they stumble on 

 her nest, when it suffers the fate of every thing eatable 

 that comes in Bruin's way. 



Of all the animals of the mountains, the one that 

 the ptarmigan has most to fear is perhaps the pine 

 marten. He is always traveling about, alow and aloft ; 

 equally at home among the trees of the forest and the 

 rocks of the peaks, always hungry, always searching 

 for food; and, while it may be doubted whether he 

 destroys many full-grown ptarmigan, we may feel sure 

 that he compasses the death of many young and pil- 

 lages many a nest. 



Although the white-tailed ptarmigan is abundant 

 enough in the high mountains which it inhabits, it is 

 scarcely known at all to sportsmen. Only the hardy 

 spirit who climbs above timber line in search of sheep 

 or goais, or that other enthusiast whose highest pleas- 

 ure it is to reach the summit of the loftiest mountain 

 peaks, ever reaches the home of this bird; and as 

 neither of these ever burdens himself with a shotgun, 

 it is almost never killed for sport. In Colorado, where 

 many prospectors and miners carry on their operations 

 far above timber line, the ptarmigan is often killed for 



