BIEDS OF NOETHERN CANADA 345 



of ten p.m. and two a.m. Both parents, however, display 

 great courage and devotion in protecting their young (which 

 we frequently encountered on our annual return trips from 

 the Arctic coast) from capture. In course of our five (1862 

 to 1866) exploring seasons nearly five hundred nests and 

 considerably over three thousand eggs of this species were 

 secured in the Anderson River region. Towards the end 

 of September, during October and early in November, an- 

 nually, L. lagopus assemble in large flocks; but during the 

 winter it was seldom that more than two or three dozen were 

 ever noticed in single companies. They are, however, most 

 winters very numerous in the neighbourhood of Fort Good 

 Hope and other Hudson's Bay Company's posts in the Mac- 

 kenzie Raver district, but as the spring comes on they begin 

 to migrate northwards. It is very doubtful if many breed 

 to the south of latitude 68° north, at least in the valley of 

 the Anderson. In the country to the north and east of the 

 Athabasca and Great Slave lakes, however, some may breed 

 considerably south of that latitude. The flesh of the ptar- 

 migan is by no means as good eating by itself as that of a 

 grouse or prairie chicken." 



Major Bendire states that: "The average number of 

 eggs to a set is from seven to eleven, and but one brood is 

 raised in a season. The eggs vary in shape from ovate to 

 elongate ovate. The ground colour ranges from cream colour 

 to a pronounced reddish buff, with several intermediate 

 shades. In some specimens it is very clearly seen, in others 

 it is almost completely obscured by the heavy confluent 

 blotches and markings. The latter vary from well-defined 

 and nearly even-sized spots of different sizes to confluent and 

 clouded blotches, and smears of various shades of dark red- 

 dish and clove brown, completely obscuring the ground colour 

 in some instances. All this colouring matter can be readily 

 removed in a freshly-laid egg, or in one taken from the ovi- 

 duct of a dead bird, just ready for expulsion, leaving the 

 shell a pale, creamy white, and they show an almost endless 



