Nov., 1915 NP?STING OF THI? WHIT?-TAILI?D PTARMIGAN 219 that morning, I instructed him to go and pro?pect 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 aronnd 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 off, 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 PRECEDINO PICTURE HAS BEEN LIFTED FROM HER NEST BY HAND, DIS- CLOSINO THE TWO EiK]S LYINO IN HALF AN INCH OF SNOW WATER; PHOTOGRAPHRD 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 ease 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 he
