46 GEOUSE AND WILD TUKKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway have stated that the crops of ptar- 

 migans were often found to contain a double handful of willow buds." 

 L. M. Turner writes thus of the bird in Alaska : " 



During the winter these birds subsist on the past year's twigs of willow and 

 alder or other bushes. I have cut open the crops of many of these winter-killed 

 birds and found them to contain only pieces of twigs about one-third of an inch 

 long, or just about the width of the gape of the posterior horny part of the bill, 

 as though this had been the means of measurement in cutting them off. The 

 flesh at this time is dry and of a peculiar taste. In spring the ptarmigans con- 

 gregate in great numbers on the willow bushes and eat the tender, swelling buds. 

 The flesh then acquires a bitter but not unpleasant taste. As open weather 

 advances they find berries that have remained frozen the entire winter, and 

 tender grass shoots, and later, insects. The young are insectivorous to a great 

 degree in their youngest days. They consume great numbers of spiders that 

 are to be found on the warm hillsides. 



In writing of the food of the willow grouse, Major Bendire says 

 that the buds and tender leaves of birch are eaten, and the berries of 

 cranberry, whortleberry, and arbutus." Wilson and Bonaparte state 

 that it feeds on berries, including the crowberry {Empetrum nigrum) 

 and the mountain cranberry iVaccinium vitis-idcea) .'' 



THE BOCK PTARMIGAN. 



(Lagopus rupestris.) « 



The rock ptarmigan inhabits arctic America from Labrador to 

 Alaska (including the entire Aleutian chain, where the willow ptar- 

 migan is unknown) . It is similar to the latter bird, but smaller and 

 has a black line from the bill to the eye by which it may readily be 

 distinguished. This bird is less common than the willow ptarmigan 

 and prefers more rocky and elevated situations. Owing to. its smaller 

 size and fewer numbers it is far less important to the people of the 

 north as an article of food than the willow ptarmigan. 



FOOD HABITS. 



I r 



No stomachs of the rock ptarmigan have been available for exami- 

 nation. In Alaska, during May, E. W. Nelson found it feeding on 

 berries of the preceding season, f Major Bendire says that the sub- 



a Hist. N. A. Birds, Land Birds, III, p. 461, 1874. 



6 Nat. Hist. Alaslia, p. 153, 1886. 



cLife Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], p. 74, 1892. 



d Am. Ornith., IV, p. 328, 1831. 



c Besides the typical Lagopus rupestris of arctic America, the rock ptarmi- 

 gans of North America Include the Reinhardt ptarmigan (L. r. reinhardi), of 

 Greenland and northern Labrador; the Welch ptarmigan (L. welohi), of New- 

 foundland ; and four forms found in the Aleutian Islands — L. r. nelsoni, L. r. 

 atkhensis, L. r. townsendi, and L. everma/nni. 



/Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, p. 136, 1887 (1888). 



