GALLINACEOUS BIRDS 
304. White-tailed Ptarmigan. Lagopus leucurus leucurus. 
Range. — Higher ranges of the Rocky Mountains, from New Mexico north to 
Alaska. 
Ptarmigan are remarkable birds in that they are in an almost continual state 
of molting, nearly every month in the year showing them in different stages of 
plumage, ranging from the snow-white winter dress to the summer one in which 
reddish-brown prevails on Willow Ptarmigan and a black and gray barred effect 
predominates on the other species. Notice that they are feathered to the toes, 
in winter the feathers on the toes growing dense and hair-like, not only protect- 
ing the toes from the cold but making excellent snowshoes which enable them 
to walk with impunity over the lightest snow. 
Ptarmigan form the staple article of diet for northern foxes, and were it noi. 
for the fact that their plumage changes to correspond to the appearance of the 
ground at the various seasons they would fare hardly indeed. 
In spring the little red combs above the eyes of the males are swollen and 
conspicuous. At this season they strut and perform curious antics, such as all 
Grouse are noted for. 
This species differs from any of the preceding in having at all seasons of the 
year, a white tail; it is also somewhat smaller than the Rock Ptarmigan. They 
nest abundantantly near the summits of the ranges in Colorado, making their 
nests among the rocks, and generally lining them with a few grasses. During 
June, they lay from six to twelve eggs having a creamy background, speckled 
and blotched with chestnut brown. Size 1.70 x 1.15. 
304a. Kenai White-tailed Ptarmigan. Lagopus leucurus peninsularis. 
Range. — Kenai Peninsular, Alaska. A similar but paler (in summer) variety 
of the preceding. The nesting habits or eggs will not differ. 
305. Prairie Chicken. T ympanuchus americanus americanus. 
Range. — -The prairies, chiefly west of the Mississippi; north to Manitoba, east 
to Ohio, and west to Colorado. 
This familiar game bird of the west is about 18 inches in length, brownish 
above and grayish below, with bars of brownish black both above and below. 
In the place of the ruffs of the Ruffled Grouse, are long tufts of rounded or 
square ended feathers, and beneath these a peculiar sac, bright orange in the 
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