CONTBIBUTIONS TO THE NATUBAL HISTOEY OF ALASKA. 153 



ground. He approaches, fastens the net to the ground, and sticks the bird-decoy near the net. The 

 live male soon perceives the decoy and rushes to it to give battle ; he pulls and tugs at it until the 

 native jerks a string which throws the net over him. I once saw a male Ptarmigan advance to the 

 decoy while the native was yet setting the net, and not a foot from the decoy. In some instances 

 the male is so courageous that he will advance when the decoy is held at arm's length. Even 

 throwing the net over him does not cause him to desist fighting. 



The nesting season begins about the 1st of June, or when the snow is generally gone from the 

 low grounds and hillsides. The nest is usually on a hillside or under the shelter of a solitary 

 straggling bush of small size. A few grass stalks or blades, with the few feathers that fall from 

 the female's breast and abdomen, form the nest. 



The number of eggs varies from nine to seventeen. The period of incubation was not deter- 

 mined. The young are able to follow the parents as soon as they are hatched. The young remain 

 with the old. They are able to fly as soon as they are as large as Bob White, C. virginianus. 

 By the middle of August they attain this size, and are the size of the adult female by the 1st ot 

 November. During the month of September the birds feed on berries, and their flesh is then bet- 

 ter than at any other season. 



"When the snow has pretty well covered the ground in late November the Ptarmigans assem- 

 ble in immense flocks, often numbering thousands. I was once out on the higher grounds just south 

 of the Crooked Canal. I ascended a slight hill and came, unexpectedly, on one of these large flocks 

 that covered acres of ground. I was among them before either was aware of it. They flew, and 

 made both the air and earth tremble. There must have been over five thousand birds in this one 

 flock. They flew beyond a neighboring hill-range. Approaching night and a heavy snow falling 

 prevented me from following them.- 



During the winter these birds subsist on the past year's twigs of the 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 has been the means of measurement in cutting them 

 off. The flesh at this time is dry and of a peculiar taste. In the spring the Ptarmigans congregate 

 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 latec, insects. The young are insectivorous to a great degi'ee in their 

 youngest days. They consume great numbers of spiders that are to be found on the warm hill- 

 sides. 



The Ptarmigans that are reared on the Kavyayak Peninsula migrate late in the fall to the 

 interior. In the spring these birds go back to their summer haunts. The natives then arrange 

 pieces of brush into small clumps set in a line and extending along the ice. On the branches of 

 this brush they hang nooses of sinew. The place where the birds usually go back to the peninsula 

 is near the end of Norton Bay, opposite Shaktolik and Egowik. The natives there prepare these 

 thickets set with nooses during this season of migration. The birds come in such numbers to 

 those places that when they see the bushes they follow them and many thousands are caught in 

 the snares. 



A single native, having only half a dozen clumps of these bushes, placed about seventy-five 

 yards apart, cannot take the captured birds out fast enough. They say the birds seem to fall to 

 the ice from every direction, they come in such great numbers. A man will, in a single day, catch 

 a sledge-load of them. The natives bring them to Saint Michael's by the load; and sell them in 

 that quantity for a mere trifle. They are used for dog-food at this season. 



The Ptarmigan is by far the most abundant land bird of the Yukon district. 



The question has been agitated whether the Ptarmingan moults the feathers from the summer 

 plumage to the white of the winter plumage, or whether it is a fading of the colors of the summer 

 plumage. The female during the incubating season is completely denuded on the abdomen and 

 inner side of the upper thigh of feathers. In the winter this tract is completely feathered with 

 white feathers. The abdomen at that season (when bare) is covered with a thick yellow, greasy, 

 wrinkled skin, that is probably to protect her from the wounds she might sustain while on the nest, 

 S. Mis. 155 20 



