WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN. 



47 



species Lagopus ri/pestris reinhardi feeds on insects, leaves, berries, 

 including the crowberry {Empetrum nigrum), tender leaves of the 

 dwarf birch and white birch, willow buds, and sorrel." Samuel 

 Hearne notes that the rock ptarmigan eats the buds and tops of the 

 dwarf birch {Betula glandulosa) ." Kumlien examined a crop that 

 was crammed with sphagnum moss." 



THE WHITE-TAILED PTABIOGAN. 



{Lagopus leucurus.) 



The white-tailed ptarmigan is found above timber line in Alaska, 

 in the mountains of British Columbia, and in the higher Cascades 

 south to Mounts Hood and Jefferson. It ranges south along the 

 Rocky Mountains through Colorado to northern New Mexico. Unlike 

 the other species, this ptarmigan has no black feathers in the tail. 

 Writing of this bird in Colorado, W. W. Cooke says that it breeds 

 above timber line, virtually, under arctic conditions, and that only in 

 most severe winters does it descend into timber. He records that it 

 breeds at from 11,500 to 13,500 feet altitude, and wanders up to the 

 summits of peaks 1,000 feet higher. Nesting takes place early in June 

 and is similar to that of other ptarmigans. In winter, when the birds 

 descend to lower altitudes, the sexes are in different flocks. 



The white-tailed ptarmigan is a trusting creature, lacking the fear 

 necessary for self-preservation. Clark P. Streator, while employed 

 by the Biological Survey in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, 

 reported that one could approach within 10 feet of it, tliat miners 

 killed it with stones, and that it was very good for food. 



In Colorado public sentiment is strongly in its favor, and it is 

 protected by an absolutely prohibitory law. The ptarmigan is one 

 of the sights pointed out to tourists in the Colorado mountains. Its 

 status here may be contrasted with that of the willow grouse in the 

 north, where thousands are killed by Eskimos and Indians. Killing 

 birds for food, however, even by wholesale, has its excuse, but whole- 

 sale slaughter for millinery purposes, such as has overtaken the 

 ptarmigans in the Old World, is unpardonable. A single shipment 

 of ptarmigan wings in Russia consisted of 10 tons.* 



FOOD HABITS. 



During winter in Colorado, according to Professor Cooke, they 

 subsist, like other ptarmigan, largely on willow buds. The stomachs 



"Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, [I], p. 80, 1892. 



6 Journey to Northern Ocean, p. 416, 1795. 



c BuU. 15, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 83, 1879. 



tf JBngelhardt, A Eussian Province of tbe North, 1899. 



