394 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



the haunt of these little birds he is very likely to be 

 disappointed. Either, on the one hand, they trot along 

 before him, refusing to rise on the wing, or else they 

 are so shy that long before he is within gunshot they 

 take wing, and fly off along the mountain side, only 

 to repeat this operation when again approached. 



Like all the grouse, the white-tailed ptarmigan, when 

 almost fully grown, are very gentle and unsuspicious, 

 and may be approached within a few feet; but as the 

 nights grow colder and the autumn storms begin, they 

 grow more and more shy. Finally, in September or 

 October, they are wild birds, often rising at good gun- 

 shot distance, flying thirty or forty yards, and, alight- 

 ing on the hillside or on some great rock, walk about 

 with head and tail held high in air, in an attitude of 

 great suspicion. If by chance they are closely ap- 

 proached when on a steep hillside they often throw 

 themselves into the air and scale downward with great 

 swiftness, sometimes continuing their flight across a 

 narrow valley, so that it is quite impossible to follow 

 them. 



In the days of their youth, before they have grown 

 shy, many are killed in the mining districts of the high 

 mountains with stones or clubs, by miners going to 

 and from their work. 



In Newfoundland, the willow ptarmigan, and occa- 

 sionally the Newfoundland form of the rock ptarmi- 

 gan, used to afford superb shooting over dogs ; but as 

 with so many other game birds in many places, 

 they have been so overshot there that it is now reported 



