File:Bird-lore (1912) (14755429962).jpg

Identifier: birdlore14nati (find matches)
Title: Bird-lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals
Subjects: Birds -- Periodicals Birds -- Conservation Periodicals
Publisher: New York, National Association of Audubon Societies
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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er. In summer thetundras are boggy, and the numerous ponds and connecting channels maketraveling difficult. In winter they are frozen solidly, and the wind-driven snowpacks into the depressions so that the surface is nearly smooth. Save for black tail-feathers, almost completely concealed when the bird isat rest, and the black of bill and eyes, the Willow Ptarmigan in the winterseason is pure white. When the white feathers first appear, in the fall, theypossess a perceptible, though faint, tinge of pink; but this soon fades out. The pure white winter dress is believed to make the birds so inconspicuousagainst the white of the landscape that they many times escape discovery bytheir enemies, the arctic fox and gyrfalcon, as they certainly do by the humanhunter. On a day when the sky is overcast with dense haze, obscuring thedirect rays of the sim, and dispersing an intense, even Ught, the Ptarmigan *Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California.(376)
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The Willow Ptarmigan 377 are extremely hard to discern against the blank whiteness of their surround-ings. Even when fresh foot-prints in the snow and occasional calls told of theirnear vicinity, I have often found myself to be within but a few yards of thebirds before they would take flight with startling whirr of wings and hoarsenotes of alarm. Then, as a bird would alight at some distance, it would seem-ingly vanish from the sight, not infrequently defying rediscovery altogether. On the occasional cloudless day, when the sun shines unobstructedly, evenwhite objects are brought out in sharp relief by their long, dark shadows castupon the snow. If approached at right angles to the rays from the sun, thePtarmigan may then be discerned at several hundred yards distance. Butthey are then shy, for they have a marvelous way of appearing to knowwhether or not the hunter is actually aware of their exact whereabouts. During the eight-months winter season, the Willow Ptarmigan feed uponthe bu

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