July, 1920 A NEW PTARMIGAN FROM MOUNT RAINIER 151 
be infertile, one addled, and three in different stages of development to approx- 
imately ten days. The sitting bird was studied and photographed for several 
hours. She was more approachable than the average domestic fowl, finally even 
permitting herself to be stroked gently on the back. 
While we never saw the male with the female and young, we did note adults 
of the two sexes together. But in such events nesting activities apparently were 
not in progress. 
The ptarmigan furnishes an interesting example of protective coloration. 
The freezing habit is characteristic. Repeatedly we were startled to find that 
we had for some moments been looking directly at birds which we had not no- 
ticed until that instant, so quietly did they stand on the rocks, and so harmoni- 
ously did their coloration blend with that of their surroundings. There seems 
7 
Fig. 35. FEMALE PTARMIGAN ON NEST, PYRAMID PEAK, 6,100 FEET, INDIAN 
HENRYS HUNTING GROUND, MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON, JULY 11, 
1919. THE VEGETATION IS RED HEATHER (Phyllodoce empetriformis) 
AND WHITE HEATHER (Casstope mertensiana). 
to exist in these ptarmigan a marvelous correlation between need for protection 
and degree of protective coloration; for the young are best protected by their 
coloration, the hens next, the cocks least. 
Young birds, up to six in number in each brood, were seen in different parts 
of the Park from July 29 well on through August. J. B. Flett, Senior Park 
Ranger, Mount Rainier National Park, found a ptarmigan track under a cliff 
at McClure Rock (7,300 feet), late in the fall of 1919. According to Flett, the 
_ptarmigan usually descend in winter and are found below the terminal moraines 
of the glaciers, though occasionally they winter under cliffs at timberline, doubt- 
less feeding on the foliage and berries of the abundant Juniperus sibirica. 
