204 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



It is hardly to be supposed that these birds would do 

 well on food other than that to which they are accus- 

 tomed in their home among the high mountains, and 

 any attempt to domesticate them would be foredoomed 

 to failure. It is not improbable that if some one who 

 resided high up in the mountains should try to rear 

 the young he might succeed, but they could not be 

 taken away from the mountains where they belong. 



In summer or autumn single birds are often met 

 with high up on the peaks, presumably the males whose 

 mates are then busy with their nests or young, and 

 these individual birds usually seem wild. They will 

 often stand and look until quite closely approached, 

 and then run swiftly fifteen or twenty yards, and then 

 stopping, stand erect and watch until again approached. 



While nowhere very abundant, the white-tailed 

 ptarmigan is yet numerous on all the higher moun- 

 tains which suit the requirements of its life. Half a 

 dozen broods may be found within a range of two 

 miles along the mountain-top, while the number of 

 eggs varies from five or six to fourteen or fifteen. 

 Occasionally, at the approach of winter, a considerable 

 number of the birds will be found together, but I have 

 not seen more than twenty-five or thirty in a flock. 



Though, in summer, insects, flowers of the heather, 

 berries and seeds undoubtedly constitute a large part 

 of the white-tailed ptarmigan's food, nevertheless I 

 believe that at all seasons they feed to a considerable 

 extent on the buds and tips of the willow, the largest 

 shrubs which grow near the tops of the mountains. On 



