PTARMIGANS. 183 
the lichens being procured in winter by digging away the 
snow. The grouse of Alaska seem to live entirely on 
willow-buds in winter, judging from the fact that two 
handfuls of them were found in the crop of a dead bird. 
This makes their flesh so bitter that it can hardly be 
eaten by whites, and even the Indians do not care for it. 
To macerate such indigestible material, the birds have to 
use large quantities of gravel, and trappers, knowing this, 
they manage to capture them in large numbers during 
the winter with the aid of a small quantity of this precious 
material. The nets used by trappers in some portions of 
British America are about twelve feet square, and 
stretched on wooden frames. These are placed upon the 
ice of a river or a lake, about two or three hundred yards 
from a line of willows, and a mound of snow, which is 
generously strewn with gravel, is erected near the center 
of each. One side of the net is propped up by a stick 
about four feet in length, to which a very long cord is 
attached; this cord is next carried into the thicket, and 
a party of men commence beating the willows in a me- 
thodical manner, and driving out the grouse as if they 
were so many barn-yard fowls, for they are as tame as 
they can be, considering their mode of life. When they 
reach the opening and see the gravel heap, they rush for 
it in the most eager manner, and when a large number is 
grouped around it, one of the men pulls the string con- 
cealed in the shrubbery. This causes the wooden prop 
to give way, the net falls, and captures all within its 
limits. A party of four or five men may secure from 
two hundred to seven hundred ptarmigans in a day with 
this simple contrivance; as they catch from twenty to 
fifty every time it falls. 
The birds are exceedingly abundant in Alaska, accord- 
ing to Mr. Dall; February and March being known as the 
** grouse months,” on account of the numbers found 
scattered all over the country. They begin to change 
