BROOKS: BIRDS FROM EAST SIBERIA AND ARCTIC ALASKA. 365 
After strutting about and “showing off’? a moment he would busy 
himself searching for food as though no man were in the country. In 
the winter plumage the males are very beautiful. 
The female begins to acquire summer plumage before the male, 
showing brown feathers on the crown and ear-coverts by May 6, 
_ though two observed with binoculars on May 20, revealed no summer 
plumage whatever. On May 8, I took two females, one in full winter 
plumage, the other in a state of transition not observed before. The 
head and neck were white but the right side of the rump and lower 
back had the summer plumage with its border down the middle of 
the back sharply defined. Females in full summer plumage were 
found early in June. 
The earliest male showing any change was taken May 13, though 
one taken on the 20, showed no change. No opportunity was afforded 
for noting the plumage change in the males for the birds had gone back 
to the foot hills for nesting before acquiring full summer plumage. 
During the latter part of May when most of the snow has gone the 
white males are very conspicuous. They do not roost on the snow 
patches that remain, and while on the tundra their form makes them 
very noticeable though the color might suggest a small bit of snow. 
For at least a month nature gives this bird little protection. 
Beside a large series of birds from Camden Bay, Humphrey Point, 
Demarcation Point, and near Herschel Island, two males were taken 
at East Cape, Siberia, June 16, 1913, and a female at Portage Bay, 
Alaska Peninsula, April 21, 1913. The males from East Cape show 
summer plumage on the crown, nape, and sides of head. 
LAGOPUS RUPESTRIS DIXONI Grinnell. 
DIXON’S PTARMIGAN. 
About three hundred were seen April 12, 1913, at Muir Inlet, 
Glacier Bay, Alaska. A series of five was preserved. 
LAGOPUS RIDGWAYI Stejneger. 
Several were seen on the mountain side at Copper Island, May 7, 
1913. Dr. J.S. Kalinin who resides there and takes great interest in 
the local bird life stated that some years they were quite plentiful 
and during others absent. No doubt this is due to the blue foxes 
