THE PTARMIGANS 
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Ptarmigan 1 — in Colorado sometimes called the 
“White Quail,” — which lives in the Rocky 
Mountains from the Liard River, British Co- 
lumbia, to New Mexico. It is said that another 
species (the Willow) does occasionally wander 
down into northern New England. The ma- 
jority of the species are found in Alaska, but 
the Rock Ptarmigan covers nearly the whole of 
Lena River, their last food was one of these 
birds, shot with a rifle by Alexy, the Eskimo. 
In northern Greenland and Grinnell Land 
Peary and Greely ate it, and in the Kenai 
Peninsula, flocks of it were photographed by 
Ball DeWeese and others. 
This bird is almost constantly busy in chang- 
ing its clothes. In the spring it goes by slow 
Summer plumage. Winter plumage. 
WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 
Drawn from photographs made in Alaska by DeWeese. 
Arctic. America from Alaska to Labrador and 
Greenland. Two of its subspecies inhabit New- 
foundland. 
The Willow Ptarmigan 2 may well be chosen 
as the typical representative of the whole group, 
for its distribution covers the Arctic lands en- 
tirely around the pole. When De Long and his 
party fought starvation at the mouth of the 
1 La-go' pus leu-cu'rus. Length, about 12 inches. 
2 La-go' pus lagopus. Length, about 14 inches. 
degrees from winter white to chestnut brown, 
barred with black. By July the dark plumage 
of midsummer is fully developed; but not for 
long. By the first of September, the trouble 
begins once more, and feather by feather the 
plumage gradually changes to snowy-white. In 
winter the legs and feet of Ptarmigans generally 
are heavily clothed with feathers, and often 
only the ends of the toes are visible. 
As might be expected, this bird and its rela- 
