THE WILLOW GROUSE 53 
mostly preferring to feed about sundown or 
during the night. 
In their breeding habits they resemble the 
rest of the family, building their nests upon the 
ground, generally at the base of some great 
rock or in a clump of stunted birches or Arctic 
willows or at the edge of an opening in the 
woods. They lay from eight to ten eggs, of a 
buff color, heavily blotched with dark red- 
brown spots. 
Unlike the ruffed grouse Mr. Ptarmigan is a 
good husband and assists in the upbringing of 
his offspring,—rather an unusual thing among 
the grouse family, where as a rule the male is 
a polygamous old rascal, perhaps because he is 
unable to choose between the fair ones and so 
plays no favorites. Therefore when disturbed 
with their young instead of resorting to the 
craft and strategems of the ‘‘partridge’’ in 
similar stress, the male bird will dash about the 
head of an intruder, in his desperate attack 
coming near enough to be killed with a stick if 
one be mean enough to do sucha thing. All this 
time the young are running away and hiding in 
obedience to the mother bird’s anxious warn- 
ings. 
Fortunately for them their enemies are 
