THE WILLOW PTARMIGAN 
By JOSEPH GRINNELL 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 60 
A Bird of 
the Snows 
ij The word Ptarmigan is applied to several speeies and races of gronse- 
[like birds comprising the genus La go pus. The name was chosen appro- 
'priately, for lagopus (Latin) signifies “rabbit-foot,” and refers to the chief 
character by which ptarmigans are distinguished from other members of 
the grouse family, namely, the heavy clothing of hair-like feathers which 
envelops the feet. In all but one of the species remark- 
able changes of plumage take place twice a year, 
through which there is acquired for the winter season 
a snow-white dress. This, and the fact that ptarmigans live in the far 
North or on the tops of snowy mountains, gave to these birds their other 
name. Snow Grouse, used commonly in Alaska. 
North America has three distinct species of ptarmigan. One of them, 
the White-tailed, lives upon the snowy summits of the Rocky Mountains 
south as far as northern New Mexico. The Rock Ptarmigan inhabits 
the mountainous country farther north, and, as represented by various 
subspecies, is found from Greenland across the continent and on nearly 
every one of the long chain of Aleutian Islands. The third American 
species, the Willow Ptarmigan, with which the present essay is concerned, 
is most abundant on that level or rolling arctic prairie-land known as 
tundra. This tundra extends almost unbrokenly across North America 
from Labrador to western Alaska, and may be said, in a general way, to 
I occupy the interval between the northern limit of forest-growth and the 
Arctic Ocean. In western and northern Alaska it is covered with a deep 
layer of moss and lichens ; and here or there in “draws,” or shallow 
valleys, are tracts of dwarfed willows and alders. 
Save for black tail-feathers, almost completely concealed when the 
bird is at rest, and the black of the bill and eyes, the 
Willow Ptarmigan in winter is pure white. When the 
white feathers first appear, in the fall, they possess a 
perceptible, though faint, tinge of pink ; but this soon fades out. 
The purely white winter dress is believed to make the birds so incon- 
spicuous against the white of the landscape that many times they escape 
discovery by their enemies, the arctic fox and gyrfalcon, as well as by the 
human hunter. On a day when the sky is overcast with dense haze, dis- 
persing an intense, even light, the ptarmigans are extremely hard to dis^ 
cern agains the blank whiteness of their surroundings. Even when fresh 
foot-prints in the snow and occasional cries told of their near vicinity, I 
A Protective 
Dress 
237 
