

PTARMIGAN SHOOTING 393 



each gun occupies a certain point or station, and shoots 

 at all the birds that pass or alight in his vicinity. The 

 ladies keep watch for those that may alight near the 

 houses. The bags vary, of course, according to the 

 skill of the shooter and his method of shooting. If 

 he is there for business he will take all the pot shots. 

 He can frequently get five or six in one shot. I have 

 seen fourteen killed in a single shot. A few will 

 only shoot on the wing, but there are many days when 

 the wing shooter comes out ahead. The biggest bag 

 I ever made (it was in 1885) shooting at flying birds 

 was eighty-two brace in one morning. At Caribou 

 Island, that winter, nets were tried, but they were not 

 very successful, more being got by shooting. Indians 

 frequently snare them by setting their snares around 

 willow clumps where the birds feed. It is a very sim- 

 ple arrangement. A twig is stuck in the snow, a twine 

 snare is tied to it, a very light support placed under it 

 to hold it in position, and it is ready. In walking 

 around the bird runs into it, then tries to rise on feel- 

 ing the snare, only to tighten the noose. There is a 

 little fluttering, and it is all over." 



Such is the abundance of the willow ptarmigan, and 

 sometimes of the rock ptarmigan as well, though this 

 last is not so numerous, and such is the way in which 

 they are killed for food. 



Rarely it happens that the earnest ornithologist or 

 the big-game hunter in search of a new sensation toils 

 laboriously up to the home of the white-tailed ptarmi- 

 gan, carrying his shotgun with him. When he reaches 



