346 NOKTH AMEKICAN FAUNA. [no. 27. 



birds commenced to lay their eggs about the last of ^la}', the molt to 

 the summer plumage beginning a week or two earlier. They assem- 

 bled in large flocks in autumn, but during the winter only small num- 

 bers remained in that neighborhood, though the species was numerous 

 at that season at Fort Good Hope and other posts on the Mackenzie." 

 Eggs taken by MacFarlane near Fort Anderson have been described 

 by Bendire.^ Ogilvie-Grant has recorded specimens from Fort Eeso- 

 lution and Fort Simpson : ^' and the Smithsonian Institution received 

 skins from Big Island, Anderson River, and La Pierre House. War- 

 burton Pike found ptarmigan, undoubtedly this species, to be numer- 

 ous about Lake Camsell, 75 miles north of the narrows of Great 

 Slave Lake, on September 15. 1899.^^ During the following year 

 James MacKinlay, who accompanied Pike, found the birds nmnerous 

 about Lac du Mort. south of Lake Mackay, on June 2, and noted that 

 the necks of the birds were dark brown, though the rest of the 

 plumage still remained white. On June 20 he noted that the female 

 birds had acquired their summer plumage, but that the males were 

 still white, with brown necks.*" Russell observed the species at Fort 

 Rae in the winter of 1893-4, where he took specimens from October 2 

 to May 7. The}' arrived there on the 1st of October, and, having 

 already begun to assume their winter plumage, were very conspicuous. 

 They were much preyed upon by goshawks. A male taken May 7 

 had commenced to acquire the summer plumage.^ During his jour- 

 ney down Telzoa River in the summer of 1893 J. B. Tyrrell first saw 

 ptarmigan at a rapid, which he named from the circumstance, below 

 Hinde Lake, in about latitude 61° 30'.^ J. "W. Tyrrell records eggs 

 found on Artillery Lake on May 30, 1900,^^ and states that the birds 

 were common on the eastern shore of that lake in latitude G3°, June 8 

 to 11 of the same year.* Hanbury noted that ptarmigan had com- 

 menced to assume their summer plumage on May 21, 1902, at T\Tiite 

 Bear Point, near Ogden Bay ; he found them common on Melville 

 Sound early in June; and noted fledgelings near the mouth of Ken- 

 dall River July 30.? 



« Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIY, pp. 430, 431, 1891. 



»Life Hist. N. A. Birds [I], p. 74, 1892. 



c Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXII, p. 43, 1893. 



^ Barren Ground of Xortliern Canada, p. 41, 1892. 



^Dowling (from MacKinlay's notes), Ottawa Nat., VII, p. 109, 1893. 



f Expl. in Far North, pp. 86, 260, 1898. 



^Ann. Kept. Can. Geol. Surv., IX (new ser.), p. 46F, 1897. 

 ^Ann. Kept. Dept. Interior (Canada), 1900-1901, p. 137, 1902. 

 * Ibid., p. 115, 1902. 



3 Sport and Travel in Northland of Canada, p. 149, 1904. 

 ^ Ibid., p. 162, 1904. 

 ^ Ibid., p. 209, 1904, 



