34 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



the year, though but one of these, that in the fall, is ccniplete. In the case of the 

 females my specimens seem to indicate but two plumages, the winter like that of 

 the male, and the summer which is different from either the courting or the sum- 

 mer male plumage. In the spring the earliest beginning of moult in the female is 

 shown by a skin taken on April 24th, where several dark feathers are hardly 

 discernible among the white feathers of the head and fore-neck. By May. 15th 

 females have many dark feathers in the upper tail-coverts, back and scapulars, 

 head and neck all around and fore-breast entirely dark, except a few white feath- 

 ers persisting on the head; otherwise pure white. May 20, 22 and 27 show suc- 

 cessively advanced stages until a female taken June 3rd, has the entire upper 

 parts fully dark, but many white feathers still in the lower breast and abdomen. 

 Females taken June 17th are completely in summer plumage. It will thus be 

 seen that the female moult occupies much less time for completion than that of the 

 male. In both sexes the tarsi and tops of the toes moult but once, in the fall. 

 But in May, after the heavy pedal feathering is of no further use as snow shoes, 

 the feathers apparently become brittle, for in a short time they become so abraded 

 that the feet and tarsi are almost bare; but a few even of the feather-shafts 

 persist, and these only as short naked stubs. It is an interesting observation that 

 the males in the spring soon after they had gained their abruptly contrasted 

 courting plumage, were much shyer and harder to approach than either previously 

 or later when they became fully dark-plumaged. For they seemed to realize that 

 when on snow, their dark fore parts rendered them conspicuous objects, and when 

 on the dark bare ground, the pure white of the rest of their plumage rendered 

 them equally easy of detection; so that the birds at this season were unable to de- 

 pend on protective coloration to conceal them from their enemies. It is also 

 worthy of note that the females acquired their protective coloration much earlier 

 in the spring than the males, and were correspondingly difficult to distinguish or 

 flush on the mossy tundras. The females are thus in condition to safely begin in- 

 cubation by June ist or earlier. A set of eleven fresh eggs 

 of the Willow Ptarmigan was found near our winter camp on 

 the Kowak by Dr. Coffin on the 3rd of June. The nest was a slight 

 depression on the top of a clump of short, dead grass in an entirely unsheltered 

 situation. There was a slight lining of grasses and moss. The female was shot 

 and her oviduct was found to contain another fully-shelled egg, so the full set in 

 this case was undoubtedly twelve. Another set was found in the Kowak delta 

 on the 17th of June. This was of thirteen eggs, incubation far advanced. The 

 nest was a slight depression in a mossy hummock, with a scanty lining of dry 

 grasses. In this case the female left the nest when almost trodden upon, and 

 exhibited great solicitude, tumbling about in the most distressing manner. The 

 male bird also put in an appearance in the vicinity, but was shy as usual. At 

 Cape Blossom, on July 10, '98, I met with a pair of Willow Ptarmigan with their 

 family of downy young. On July 30 I encountered another flock of about a dozen 

 young, nearly two-thirds grown, together with the adults. In common with most 

 of the grouse and partridges, the young of the ptarmigan have a most wonderful 

 fjculty of concealing themselves at a moment's notice. In the first case, although 

 an instant before I had seen the whole flock running about in the short grass, I 

 succeeded in securing but one. The eskimo name, A-gar'iuk or 



A-kazh're-gak, is evidently an imitation of the cackle of the 



