198 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



is no wilder than the average domestic hen in the 

 same situation. 



The following very interesting account of this bird 

 appears in Dr. Coues' "Birds of the Northwest," for 

 which it was prepared by Mr. Trippe; it relates en- 

 tirely to the species in Colorado : "The white-tailed 

 ptarmigan is a very abundant bird on the main range, 

 living entirely above timber line the year round, ex- 

 cept during the severest part of the winter, when it 

 descends into the timber for shelter and food, occasion- 

 ally straggling as low as 10,000 feet. It begins 

 to change color about the middle of March, when a few 

 specks of blackish brown begin to appear in the plum- 

 age of the oldest males, but the change is very slow, 

 and it is late in April before there is much black visible, 

 and the close of May or early in June before the sum- 

 mer plumage is perfect. The ptarmigan builds its 

 nest in the latter part of June and commences hatch- 

 ing toward the close of the month, or early in July. 

 The nest which is almost always placed on or near 

 the summit of the ridge, or spur, many hundred feet 

 above timber line is merely a depression in the ground, 

 lined with a few straws and white feathers from the 

 mother's breast. The eggs are eight in number, of a 

 light buff brown-, thickly sprinkled with spots of dark 

 chocolate brown, somewhat thicker at the larger end. 

 While on her nest the bird is very tame. Once, while 

 walking near the summit of the range, I chanced to 

 look down and saw a ptarmigan in the grass at my very 

 feet; at the next step I should have trodden upon her. 



