APR 12 1916 
THE WILLOW PTARMIGAN 
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By JOSEPH 
t jSational association 
EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 60 
The word Ptarmigan is applied to several species and races of grouse-like 
birds comprising the genus Lagopus. The name was chosen appropriately, for 
“Lagopus” signifies “rabbit-foot,” and refers to the chief character by which 
Ptarmigan are distinguished from other members of the Grouse family, namely, 
the heavy clothing of hair-like feathers which envelop the feet. In all but one 
of the species there are remarkable changes of plumage twice a year, through 
which there is acquired for the winter season a snow-white dress. This, and 
the fact that Ptarmigan live in the far north or on the tops of high moun¬ 
tains, where the climate is severe, probably gave basis for the other name, 
Snow Grouse, used commonly for the birds in some parts of their range, as in 
Alaska. 
In America there are 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 clear across North America from Labrador to western Alaska, 
and may be said, in a general way, to occupy the interval between the tree 
limit and the Arctic Ocean. In western and northern Alaska, these tundras 
are covered with a deep layer of moss and lichens. Here or there in ‘draws’ or 
shallow valleys, there are tracts of dwarf willow and alder. In summer the 
tundras are boggy, and the numerous ponds and connecting channels make 
traveling difficult. In winter they are frozen solidly, and the wind-driven snow 
packs into the depressions so that the surface is nearly smooth. 
Save for black tail-feathers, almost completely concealed when the bird is 
at rest, and the black of bill and eyes, the Willow Ptarmigan in the winter 
season 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 pure white winter dress is believed to make the birds so inconspicuous 
against the white of the landscape that they many times escape discovery by 
their enemies, the arctic fox and gyrfalcon, as they certainly do by the human 
hunter. On a day when the sky is overcast with dense haze, obscuring the 
direct rays of the sun, and dispersing an intense, even light, the Ptarmigan 
Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California. 
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