The Nesting Habits of the White-tailed Ptarmigan in Colorado
By EVAN LEWIS
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REVIOUS to starting out to hunt the nest of the Rocky Mountain or White-tailed Ptarmigan in 1890, I had never been in their sum- mer haunts in the nesting season. Having been referred to a man in
Denver who claimed to have hunted Ptarmigan at all seasons of the year. he told me there would be no difficulty in discovering their nests if in a region where they were found in any number. He said they always nest among the small willows that grow anywhere above timber»line.
AsI had seen flocks of over five hundred Ptarmigan at one time on Mount Evans and around Chicago Lakes. that was the ground selected for hunting them. Instead of finding them in flocks, only single pairs were to be seen and in many cases one male or one female. \Vhen a male bird was flushed it usually rose with the scream or whistle peculiar to this species. The cry was usually taken up by another male within hearing and in a short time the birds were fighting and chasing each other till one was driven back to his own grounds. The females were seen only near nightfall, either feeding on insects that had fallen during the day on the large snowf‘ields or on the young shoots of alpine clover. This feeding, if on clover. was kept up till it was too dark to follow the bird to its nest: if on insects. the bird usually made a number of quite prolonged flights which carried it safely beyond observation.
On June IS a nest was found. the bird merely leaving the nest as the foot was about to fall on it, and in less than fifteen seconds was again cov- ering her eggs. The nest was a mere hollow in the ground that looked like the work of the bird herself. A little dried grass and a few feathers was all that kept bird and eggs from resting on bare ground. Contrary to expectations, there was not a willow within one hundred feet. One or two gnarled pifion trees stood. about fifty feet away. The nest was not round but elliptical in form, and the bird never went on the nest except the long way of the ellipse, sitting facing either the east or the west.
The search was then renewed and continued rill july 7. but on entirely different ground, as the willows were avoided The result was two old nests of the preceding year. with the egg-shells still in the nest. ()ne of these was on a very small bunch of grass more than half way to the top of what is known as Mount Goliah, just east of Lower Chicago Lake. in a rather deep wash for that mountain: the grass spot was just out of the way of the water. In this case no willows were nearer than two thousand feet, The other old nest was on the same slope of the mountain. about half .1 mile farther north.
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