144 



WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



was coming and my little family had apparently gone to shelter — 

 possibly under a dense mat of evergreen or into a safe cavern under 

 a ledge, for they are said to- roost along the edges of coarse rock 

 slides under dwarf evergreens — and greatly to my disappointment, 

 I never saw them again. 



Another brood of five downy chicks was found by a member of 

 our party on the crest of the mountain opposite, but in this case there 

 was melting snow near at hand. A brood of six larger young was 

 found near the top of Piegan Pass in August, also in easy reach of 

 water, and where there were bunches of red sorrel whoso seeds the 

 3'oung were eating. On Kootenai Pass still later the turkeylike 

 kerp, hcrp, of a mother ptarmigan calling her brood was heard in 



Photograph by E. J. Oameroo. 



Fig. 46. — Sharp-tailed grouse. 



passing. Near Blackfeet Glacier feathers were found, and at Gun- 

 sight Pass a lineman reported seeing the birds where the open slopes 

 afford abundant food. 



In winter the ptarmigan feed on willow buds and the evergreen 

 leaves of the dryas, Mr. Stevenson tells me. He has found them with 

 their snow white winter plumage complete the last of September, and 

 in winter has seen them on the mountain tops, " each bird sitting in 

 the snow lodged behind a rock on the bare, rocky, wind-swept bar- 

 rens." After hard storms, he saj's, thej' may also be found at the 

 bases of the mountains, and one flock was discovered in the willoAvs 

 above Sherburne Lake during a blizzard. But though a few may 

 occasionally be driven below by stress of storm, the ptarmigan live on 

 the mountain tops, where the mountain sheep and goats make their 

 homes, and where they, too, are nourished by the hardj', dwarf, Arc- 

 tic-Alpine flora. Having had little to fear from the hand of man, 

 these gentle birds offer one of the most delightful of all experiences 

 to the bird lover, the opportunity to study their natural home life 

 close at hand. 



