264 



reddisb-brown dots, on a chocolate-colored groiiud, and measured about 

 2.00 inches in length by 1.20 inches in diameter". This same egg was 

 also described by Dr. T. M. Brewer, in Baird, Brewer, and Eidgway, 

 History of ]S"orth American Birds, iii, 1874, p. 165. 



The first account of the particular habits of the bird during the 

 breeding-season was likewise communicated to me by another esteemed 

 correspondent, Mr. T. Martin Trippe, C. E., who appears to have enjoyed 

 excellent opportunities for observation among the mountains of Clear 

 Creek County, Colorado Territory. ''The Ptarmigan builds its nest," 

 says Mr. Trippe, "in the latter x^art of June, and commences hatching 

 toward the close of the month or early in July. The nest — which is 

 always on or near the summit of a ridge or spur, many hundred feet 

 above timber-line — is merely a depression in the ground, lined with a 

 few straws, and white feathers from the mother's breast. The eggs 

 are eight in number, of a light buff-brown, thickly sprinkled with spots 

 of dark chocolate-brown, somewhat thicker at the larger end. While 

 on her nest, the bird is very tame. Once while walking near the sum- 

 mit of the range, I chanced to look down, and saw a Ptarmigan in the 

 grass, at my very feet — at the next step I should have trodden upon her. 

 Seeing that she did not appear frightened, I sat down gently, stroked her 

 on the back, and finally, putting both hands beneath her, raised her 

 gently off the nest and set her down on the grass, while she scolded and 

 pecked at my bands like a setting hen, and, on being released, merely 

 flew a few yards and settled on a rock, from which she watched me 

 till I went away. Late in July, I came across a brood of young ones, 

 apparently not more than four or five days old. They were striped with 

 broad bands of white and blackish-brown, and looked precisely like little 

 game chickens. The mother flew in my face and hit me with her wings, 

 using all the little artifices that the Quail and Partridge know so well 

 bow to employ, to draw me away; while her brood, seven or eight in 

 number, nimbly ran and bid themselves in the dense grass and among 

 the stones. On another excursion above timber-line, toward the close 

 of August, I found most of the young ones nearly grown and strong on 

 the wing; but one brood was of the size of Quails, showing tbat some 

 birds must begin breeding much later than others, or that the}' occa- 

 sionally raise two broods." — (Birds of the Northwest, p. 427.) 



In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xvi, 

 p. 348 (1874), Dr. T. M. Brewer describes the fragments of a set of eggs 

 received from Mr. T. M. Trippe, whose MSS. notes accompanying, pub- 

 lished by Dr. Brewer, are to the same effect as those already quoted from 

 the "Birds of the Northwest"; having apparently been drawn up from 

 the same incident. This set of eggs was found June 28, 1873, on a high 

 ridge a thousand feet above timber-line, near the Chicago Lakes, about 

 ■fifteen miles from Idaho Springs, Colorado Territory. One of the eggs, 

 though much damaged, admitted of being put together sufficiently to 

 show its size, shape, and in fact all its characters. It is thus described 

 by Dr. Brewer: "This egg is 1.70 inches in length by 1.21 in breadth ; 

 is oval in shape, one end being but very little smaller than the other. 

 The ground-color is a rich creamy-drab, and the surface of the egg is 

 pretty uniformly marked with small rounded dots of dark chestnut ; 

 these are about equally distributed over the entire egg, and are nowhere 

 confluent." 



A further contribution to the history of the species was made by Mr. 

 J. H. Batty in the Forest and Stream (newspaper) of January 29, 1874. 

 The writer has, however, little to say of the breeding-habits, and, as is 

 now clearly seen, was in error in his supposition that the bird lays only 



