46 GROUSK AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 
Baird, Brewer, and Ridoway have stated that the crops of ptar- 
inifraiis were often found to contain a double handful of willow buds." 
L. M. Turner writes thus of the bird in Alaska: ^ 
During tho winter these birds subsist on the past year's twigs of willow and 
nldor or other buslies. I have out open the crops of many of these winter-killed 
birds and found them to contain only pieces of twigs about one-third of an inch 
long, or just about tho width of the gape of the posterior horny part of the bill, 
as though this had been the means of measurement in cutting them off. The 
t'.esh at this time is dry and of a peculiar taste. In spring the ptarmigans con- 
gregate in great numbers on the willow bushes and eat the tender, swelling buds. 
The flesh then acquires a bitter but not unpleasant taste. As open weather 
advances they find berries that have remained frozen the entire winter, and 
tender grass shoots, and later, insects. The young are insectivorous to a great 
degree in their youngest days. They consume great numbers of spiders that 
are to be found on the warm hillsides. 
In writing of the food of the willow grouse, Major Bendire says 
that the buds and tender leaves of birch are eaten, and the berries of 
cranberry, whortleberry, and arbutus.^" Wilson and Bonaparte state 
that it feeds on berries, including the crowberry {Empetrum nigrum) 
and the mountain cranberry {Vaccinium vitis-idcea) .^ 
THE ROCK PTARMIGAN. 
(Lagopus rupestris.) c 
The rock ptarmigan inhabits arctic America from Labrador to 
Alaska (including the entire Aleutian chain, where the willow ptar- 
migan is unknown). It is similar to the latter bird, but smaller and 
has a black line from the bill to the eye by which it may readily be 
distinguished. This bird is less common than the willow ptarmigan 
and prefers more rocky and elevated situations. Owing to its smaller 
size and fewer numbers it is far less important to the people of the 
north as an article of food than the willow ptarmigan. 
FOOD HABITS. 
No stomachs of the rock ptarmigan have been available for exami- 
nation. In Alaska, during May, E. W. Nelson found it feeding on 
berries of the preceding season, f Major Bendire says that the sub- 
a Hist. N. A. Birds, Land Birds, III, p. 461, 1874. 
&Nat. Hist. Alaska, p. irwi, 1880. 
<^ Life Hist. N. A. Birds, | IJ. p. 74, 1892. 
dAm. Ornith.. IV. p. :V2S, 18:n. 
'^ Besides the tyi)ical La(/o])us niprntris of arctic America, the rock ptarmi- 
Rans of North America include the Ueiidiardt ptarmigan (L. r. rcinhardi), of 
Greenland and northern Labrador; the Welch ptarmigan (/>. wcJchi), of New- 
fcmndlaiKJ; and four forms found in the Ah»utian Islands — L. r. nclsoni, L. r. 
atkhcnsis, L. r. toicusoHli. and L. crriHKUun. 
f Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, p. 130, 1887 (1888). 
