WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN 203 



crouch behind them ; or, if they alight on a snow bank, 

 they quickly scratch out for themselves a little cavity 

 in the snow, large and deep enough to contain the 

 body, so that the wind blows over them. 



On the other hand, in Montana, among the high 

 mountains of the Saint Mary's region, where hunters 

 and mountain climbers are often seen, these birds are 

 sometimes quite wild, rising at a considerable dis- 

 tance with a loud cackle, and flying a quarter of a 

 mile to alight again on some prominent rock, upon 

 which they run about with tail erect and head thrown 

 back, cackling in alarm, and ready at an instant's no- 

 tice to take to wing again and fly still farther. It is 

 only in this region that I have pursued them with a 

 shotgun, and here they are as quick on the wing and 

 as hard to hit as any of the grouse. Sometimes, when 

 following scattered birds along the rough mountain- 

 side, they would pitch down past me from the rocks 

 on which they had perched, with a flight not less rapid 

 than that of the New England ruffed grouse, as he 

 darts down from the top of some pine tree in which 

 he has hidden himself. 



Two or three years ago, Joseph Kipp, of Montana, 

 while crossing from the west to the east side of the 

 range, through the Belly River Pass, in July, came 

 upon a brood of half-grown ptarmigan. The mother 

 attacked him vigorously, and was so persistent that 

 he caught her and several of the young, and carried 

 them with him for half a day, when he let them go 

 again, because he had nothing which they could eat. 



