Nov., 1915 
NESTING OF THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN 
219 
that morning, I instructed him to go and prospect that gulch, which we had not 
previously worked, and I would stand watch on his birds. This I did for about 
two hours, during which time they were never more than twenty-five to forty 
yards from me. I carefully avoided going near enough to disturb them and they 
did not move out of a radius of more than twenty yards, occasionally moving 
around very slowly, picking buds from small scrub bushes a foot to eighteen 
inches in height, then lying down just behind a rock or under the edge of a 
bush, generally on the opposite side from me. At times I carefully walked 
around to make sure they had not sneaked oft’, and found them crouched down 
apparently asleep or resting. Finally they slowly walked over a very slight 
rise in the ground, about forty yards distant, and disappeared. Immediately 
Fig. 74. The White-tailed Ptarmigan shown in preceding 
PICTURE HAS BEEN LIFTED FROM HER NEST BY HAND, DIS- 
CLOSING THE TWO EGGS LYING IN HALF AN INCH OF SNOW 
water; photographed June 21, 1915. 
leaving my blankets I deliberately walked over to ensure not losing sight of 
them, but, although they had not been out of my sight two minutes, was unable 
to find them. I unavailingly scoured the ground for a half hour. I know abso- 
lutely that they did not fly ; there was no shelter for them except the very slight 
ridge that extended up for one or two hundred feet, and an occasional small 
patch of from one to four or five square yards of the short bush referred to, 
and a few projecting rocks, all of which were thoroughly prospected. 
About this time Olson returned and joined me in the search, but we found 
no sign of the birds. He then told me that in the case of the first pair he located 
and camped with the previous day, after finding the nest with the five eggs, he 
had had exactly the same experience, except that after they disappeared lie 
