Park Birds

PARK BIRDS

Geo. C. Ruhle

Glacier Park possesses a wealth of bird life, varied and interesting. There are almost two hundred species of birds listed for the park. Of these, the bus driver ought to be familiar at least with the commonest seen along park highways, and with others that are of outstanding appeal to park visitors. By learning to recognize the commonest birds, and by knowing a little of their life histories, the driver adds pleasure and satisfaction to his experience in Glacier Park.

Many birds are a source of food and ornament. The economic value of birds to the farmer, horticulturist, and stock raiser is of much greater magnitude than is generally supposed, and since agriculture is the basis of the material wealth of the nation, any agency which contributes to its general welfare is of primary importance.

Birds appeal to the ear because of their exquisite songs and music, and to the eye because of their gorgeous colorings and graceful demeanor, and to the spirit because of their abundance of life. They are the most active of living things, being possessed of the highest blood temperature and most rapid circulation. A person handling a living bird soon notes its rapidly beating heart; that same rapid heart beat indicative of fear to us is life and health to the bird. Birds are always gay and restless; they lead a fast life. Their great activity demands much fuel to carry on life's processes. They are adapted to be one of Nature's best housemaids because of their mobility and theyneed, as food, vast quantities of insects, weed seeds, plant and animal "vermin" which, unchecked, would soon devastate the earth.

Birds are great travelers. Their powers of flight have been acclaimed throughout the ages. This mobility has made it possible for the class as a whole to enjoy the widest distribution of any of the more highly developed forms of life. Their high mental development, busy life, beautiful colors, pleasing music, and marvelous flight have made them symbolic of nobler human attributes in the minds of men, so much so that many of these birds are known in name if not in flesh and blood.

As a class, birds follow reptiles in the scale of evolution, and so are of special interest to the scientist. Science is further interested in their relations between themselves, with their environment, and with man, such as the effects of civilization and its spreading upon the bird world.

How interesting it is to discover the many ways in which Nature has adapted each bird to fit in her various niches! How does the leucosticte survive the cold of wintry mountain peaks and what is its means of sustenance? How does the ouzel reach the caddis-fly larva on the bottom of flowing rivers, although apparently originally a land bird and possessing feet unwebbed and unadapted for swimming? How is the woodpecker or the creeper adapted to spend life on the perpendicular side of a tree? These are questions with appeal and what a wealth of this do they possess! And from them it may be learned that though it be very impressive to be able to explain with great accuracy: "That is a Cassin finch; those are cliff swallows flying overhead; these are Brewer blackbirds" in answer to the question, "What bird is that?", it is far more important to know the answer to: "What are its peculiar life habits?", "Of what intrinsic interest is it to us?" "How do you know that to be a sparrow and how may I recognize it as such next time I meet it?" The bird is more than a name, and can be a source of pleasure forevermore.

There are now more than 13,000 known species of birds classified. More than 1,400 species are found in the United States and Alaska alone. Each bird has its own problems and its own story. The loss of birds would soon render the world uninhabitable to man, and so man must study and know them.

How to Recognize Birds in the Field - Most bird books go into elaborate descriptions of the colors and markings of a bird. The novice wishes to use these as his means of identification, but seeing the objects of his study placed against the bright light of the sky or blending with their surroundings, despairs of ever learning to know the individuals of large numbers of species, because of his inability to differentiate the colors and markings as he has seen them in the picture book. The normal trained bird lover relies on this means least in recognizing different birds, his other means are:

(1) The song, call note, or vocal peculiarities. One of the first steps in learning to know the birds is learning to know their voices, even unseen individuals being recognized by this means. Without looking for the vocalist, the bird lover is oft able to say: "That is the roll of the purple finch in the tree-top yonder"; "That is the call note of the olive-sided flycatcher". In addition, he may hear the alarm note of the robin and endeavor to discover what disturbs his composure. During the nesting season, the warbling vireo sings throughout daylight hours almost without ceasing, it being estimated that he repeats his abbreviated warble 4,000 times a day. The duties of incubation in the vireo household are most evenly divided between husband and wife, the former assuming his turn on the nest at midday. While thus engaged he continues his vocalizing, so that ornithologists may locate the nests by finding the singing male in the afternoon. These birds are common in the forests of McDonald Valley.

(2) Peculiar habits. A distant bird hops along the ground for a short distance, stops alert with head high and breast thrust forward, tilts his head sideways as if listening for the movements of a worm beneath his foot, hops along again, and repeats the same procedure many times. We watch him and know he is a robin from these actions alone. Again, a bird perches upright on the bare limb of a tree, peers around himself, darts forward quickly into the air, stops just as abruptly, reverses his flight and perches on another bare limb. The bird is a flycatcher, engaged in procuring his dinner of insects. One needs only combine this knowledge with size, location, call note, or some other feature to identify what kind of flycatcher is being watched. This is the most important means of identification to a bus driver in determining roadside birds.

(3) Silhouette or general contours. The plump shapes of the robins, the cross-bow outline of flying swifts, the contours of flying ducks or geese, and the outlines of soaring hawks are illustrations of identification by this means.

Perhaps the most conspicuous of common birds along the highway are the hawks. Because of the bad name rightfully attached to two or three species, and, because they offer an attractive, unprotected target to the man with a gun, hawks are ruthlessly destroyed at the expense of millions of dollars to the country. Hawks are a check upon harmful rodents and insects, an extremely interesting example of adaptation to a definite niche in nature, a valuable means of control against overproduction of creatures useful under normal circumstances. They are among the finest and most interesting birdlife and ought to be protected at all times. For the small amount of damage to poultry, hawks repay manyfold by the good services they render otherwise.

The most common hawk in open country at lower elevations, especially on the east side, is the small, handsome and valuable so-called sparrow hawk. The blue and rufous (brown) coloration with peculiar black and white markings, especially the vertical black mark across the face, serves to differentiate this from all other hawks. It is small, being little larger than the robin.

The falcons are bold hawks of great spirit, address, speed, and endurance. They are the noble hawks of ancient falconry but drop like a bullet upon their prey and are undaunted by failure. They hover or fly with quick strokes of their pointed wings, being little given to sailing. Like its kindred falcons, the sparrow hawk hovers or poises over its prey before dropping lightly down upon it. Sometimes it swoops in a series of steps, dropping five or ten feet, hovering, dropping, and hovering again. This habit offers a strong field mark for its identification.

Over one-half of the food of the sparrow hawk consists of grasshoppers, crickets, terrestial beetles, and caterpillars, and he is often seen hovering over cultivated fields in search of these. Of the remainder, half consists of mice and shrews while the other half consists of birds, reptiles and spiders; and so, on the whole, he renders excellent service to mankind. He is often seen perched on dead trees or telephone wires watching for movements that may betray the presence of prey. His home life is model; it is believed that he mates for life, helps incubate the eggs and raise the brood. Nests in old woodpecker holes have been known to be used for many years.

This bird calls "Killy, killy, killy" as it wings over fields, and has often been called "the killy hawk". Other names are grasshopper hawk and mouse hawk, far more appropriate than sparrow hawk, not only because of its principal articles of food but also since it bears no resemblance nor is it directly related to the European sparrow hawk.

The commonest high-flying hawk and the commonest large hawk along the highway is the red-tail, which slowly wings its way in ever increasing circles as it watches for prey of rodents and snakes. Often it descends in a series of plunges with wings closed, regaining height by suddenly opening them. It is characterized by a rich chestnut tail which is crossed by several narrow black bands and which is spread like a fan while flying. Hawks, at best, are rather difficult to differentiate in the field, and this is especially true of the red-tail and its close relative, the Swainson. Individuals of the same species vary greatly in size and color, but in general the red-tail has a breast lighter than the abdomen while the reverse is true of the Swainson. The red-tail is often mistaken for an eagle as it loves to sit for hours on some exposed perch such as a fence post. It is of greatest economic importance because it destroys many injurious mice. This is true also of the Swainson and rough-legged hawks, also common on the Blackfeet Highway. They seldom, if ever, bother song birds or poultry.

The marsh hawk or harrier is easily recognized by a conspicuous white rump patch, as he beats low over marshes and meadowland in search of mice. It is found throughout the length of the highway, and is very common near Waterton Lakes Park. It is usually brown in color, but occasionally it is colored somewhat like a gull, with slate above, white below, and black on wing tips. In soaring it holds its wings elevated above the body instead of level with it as other hawks do. It is found in all parts of the park.

The sharp-shinned or bird hawk is of small size, found in mixed woods or open fields, especially where there is a cover of brush. It is often seen along Lower St. Mary Lake. This is the American relative of the European sparrow hawk and is equally destructive to bird life. It flies just over the tops of bushes and trees, or over the ground, usually in a leisurely manner except when in pursuit of prey. With its short, rounded wings it progresses by a series of quick even strokes and short sails, never sitting in watch for prey nor darting down upon it like the sparrow hawk. It is bluish-gray above, with underparts of white, barred and spotted with reddish brown. The tail is long and narrow, crossed by three or four dark bands and tipped with white. Like the Cooper and goshawk, the sharp-shinned is destructive economically.

The current idea that all hawks and owls are harmful is not only erroneous but a grave economic error. Most are beneficial friends of the farmer and spend their entire lives in ceaseless pursuit of insects and rodents that destroy his crops. Over one hundred grasshoppers have been found in the stomach of a single Swainson hawk, while more than 3,000 skulls of mammals have been discovered in the retreat of a single pair of barn owls, of which over 2,900 were of mice and rats. An increase of rodents is always noted where there is a marked decrease of hawks. Of all of the species of hawks found in the country, only the three mentioned above are economically injurious.

The bald eagle, the American national emblem, is a rare and picturesque feature of the landscape near open waters. The adult has a conspicuous white head, neck, and tail, but this distinction is not acquired until the third year, the juvenile bald eagle having blackish feathers during his first year and gray ones during the second, during which time he is distinguished from the golden eagle only with difficulty. The bald eagle lives largely on fish which it can capture by diving, similar to the osprey, but which it usually gets by stealing from the osprey or by picking up dead along the shores. Although it does sometimes attack living birds and mammals, even fawns, lambs, or kids, it prefers carrion and offal, often gorging itself to the extent that it cannot arise in flight. But not all is repellent in this stern-visaged monarch of the air. He possesses magnificent presence, is highly devoted to his family, and, though inferior to the golden eagle in power and grace, flies with long powerful strokes or sails for hours on air currents without moving a wing. Bald eagles are sometimes seen along the lakes on the east side, and often along United States Highway Number Two along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

A far more spirited and noble bird is the golden eagle, a bird of the mountain fastness. He is less of an habitual carrion feeder, and lives largely on birds and mammals he catches. The bird is frequently seen soaring about Chief Mountain for hours near the cliffs. Golden eagles are rare. They are our largest birds of prey, and deserve protection most everywhere.

The most picturesque feature of broad, shallow, inland waters and tidal flats is the osprey or "fish hawk", whose habits of hunting and diving from the wing are a never failing source of interest. The osprey is a very large hawk, with a broad wing expanse, and is only slightly smaller than the eagle. It is brownish-black above and gleaming white below, has a white head and neck, a black bar over the ears, and a distinct occipital crest. It subsists entirely on fish which it catches. Soaring at a considerable height above the water, it hovers for a moment as the prey is spotted, then drops precipitously in a long, swooping spiral. With wings raised high over its back, it strikes the water with a splash that hides almost the entire bird. With one or two powerful wing-strokes the bird rises from the water clasping a struggling fish with its long talons. The prey may or may not be held with its back up, but it invariably makes its aerial journey head foremost. Nor is this trip always uneventful, for ofttimes the struggles of larger victims are a sore tribulation to the hawk, and sometimes its inveterate enemy, the bald eagle, pursues and harasses it until it drops its hard-earned dinner, which the bold pursuer catches with a clever swoop as it falls.

The plumage of the osprey is firm, close and oily. Its feet are immensely large and strong, with pads or corrugations for clasping slippery fish. The wings are long and powerful and make the superb flight possible.

The home life of the osprey is model despite the fact that many a sagebrusher has been told that the male is kept on the nest by the female at night so that his deportment may be under her scrutiny even during the invisible hours. It is believed that the osprey mates for life and returns to the same nest each succeeding season. When the pair arrive in their park home, they immediately repair, renovate, and add to their nest. This is an unwieldy mass of sticks five feet or more in diameter, lined with needles, grass, bark and other soft rubbish. The eggs vary much in color, from white to tawny or reddish, and blotched with different browns. They are two or usually three in number. After an incubation period of four weeks, the young are born in June or early July, little gray fluff-balls that are spotted with variegated brown or white colors. During their first days of life the mother bird is constantly on the nest while father fishes for his family's food. He gives his catch to the mother, who tears it into bits and gives each youngster a share in its turn. There is no hubbub nor excitement within the nest as there is in the nests of most birds, but each awaits its portion and takes it quietly when given to it. When danger approaches, the mother gives a peculiar cluck, the young freeze and, except for the blinking of eyelids, appear quite lifeless until reassured by mother's cluck that all is well (Skinner). About forty or fifty days are spent in the nest.

Ospreys are inoffensive and seldom fight among themselves. Smaller birds often take advantage of their peaceful natures and build their tiny homes within the interstices of the osprey nest. Waterfowl are unalarmed by the soaring of this mighty hawk and swim peacefully and undisturbed evenwhen it strikes for a fish in close proximity.

The bird is gradually growing rarer inland where its huge nest invites attack by human robbers. He apparently has no important economic status, and takes few fish of commercial or sporting value; the few trout that he may catch can readily be spared.

Ospreys are seen around most of the larger lakes of the park, including Lake McDonald and those along the Blackfeet Highway. A pair of birds have lived for years on the summit of a snag across the lake and in plain sight of Many Glacier Hotel, from the veranda of which they can be studied. Their nest was destroyed in the fire of 1936; but the pair returned to build a new nest in 1937. Other osprey families nest on St. Mary Lake near Sun Camp and on Waterton Lake at Goathaunt.

The Pacific highthawk, which flies at nightfall in swoops, is a curious looking bird with a short weak bill and a wide gaping mouth surrounded by long stiff bristles and acting as a fly-trap when the bird flies through the air. The bird has an irregular flight and utters a screeching cry or a booming sound. It is dark, barred and streaked irregularly, and has conspicuous white wing patches which look like holes in the wings as it flies. It is migratory, and nests on the ground. It is frequently seen when one drives along the highway at dusk.

The cowbird was reputed to build its nest between the horns of a buffalo. Since it does not build a nest of its own, which fact is unknown to most people, its close association with the buffalo gave rise to this legend. Here, as elsewhere, the bird lays its eggs in the nest of another bird. The cowbird is often seen perched on stock along the Blackfeet Highway or in corrals. It is very tame and frequently walks about the feet of horses being used on saddle trips. A female cowbird lived for several weeks at the Cutbank Road Camp of the Park Service a few years ago. It would enter the tents of the crew and would perch on the men as they read the paper, picking at their watch chains, or, if occasion presented itself as when a man laughed, might flit and, chicken-like, take a peck at the man's shining teeth.

Perched upright like a sentinel on fence wires and posts, a broad white tail band showing distinctly against the general black coloration of upper parts and tail, the kingbird is an attractive and commonly seen bird of the Blackfeet Highway. Very frequently it is seen in bold pursuit of much larger birds, such as the raven, which we may readily suppose is guilty of attempting to rob nest eggs. The kingbird nests in service bushes along the highway.

The large, black, crow-like bird of the plains on the east side is the raven. Ravens are hard to distinguish from crows except by their size which is half again as large as the crow. The raven soars when he flies and utters a hoarse croak, whereas the crow flaps a great deal and has the well known raucous "Caw" for a voice. Ravens lead a solitary existence while crows are frequently found in groups. Crows are seen around Many Glacier. It is a curious fact that there are very few places where crows and ravens are found together, yet the ranges overlap in this park.

A highway bird of peculiar interest is the magpie of ill repute. He is seen here throughout the year except at the height of the tourist season, when he mysteriously disappears. Striking black and white plumage, long wedge-shaped tail, and mischievous behavior characterizes this bird which is peculiar to the arid plains of the west.

Along the St. Mary Lakes, as well as along other bodies of water, different water birds can be seen. These include many species of ducks, geese, grebes, gulls, terns, and waders. A driver interested in learning to differentiate them should carry along a small bird book and a notebook in which to record prominent field marks and habits on the spot.

Occasionally on U.S. 89 and most frequently along Park highways, the driver may be fortunate in coming across sharp-tailed grouse. This is the brush-loving western relative of the prairie-loving, true prairie chicken once a celebrated bird that strutted, courted, boo-hooed into large bright orange neck pouches in the springtime. Once, the prairie chicken abounded upon the plains, but dwindled almost to extinction before the relentless gunfire of game hog and market shooter. The sharptailed grouse, as fine an upland game bird as there exists, almost suffered the same fate. Protection by the Park Service assures its preservation for the future.

There are four other grouse in the park; the Richardson, Franklin, and grey ruffed grouse and the ptarmigan. Ptarmigan may be seen not far from the parking area on Logan Pass. Being the park bird, it is given a separate article in this volume.

The Richardson grouse is a large bird with a bluish cast. It is partial to fir and spruce cover, and never gets far from the shelter of trees. It does not possess shoulder ruffs, but has two sacs on either side of the neck which may be inflated, and from which the air is expelled with a booming noise audible for several hundred yards. This bird has ventriloquistic powers, and much searching is sometimes necessary to locate a booming bird which may be perched on a limb close by.

The small, trim Franklin grouse is the handsomest in the park. It has striking black and white banded plumage; the male has bright red cones over the eyes. This bird seems to be wholly without fear to the extent of foolhardiness. Sometimes one will be seen strutting in the road, wholly unconcerned by the approach of an automobile. This trait has given the bird the nickname of "foolhen".

The gray ruffed grouse is a grayish bird with a conspicuous black ruff on either shoulder. He lives near the edges of the forest and in underbrush, but is partial to groves of aspen. Though the ruffed grouse was once numerous and found widely distributed over the northern two-thirds of the United States and in forested areas in Canada, this splendid game bird is now found in limited areas where rigorous protection will be necessary to curb its total destruction. In many places it has been crowded out by foreign game birds, usually inferior in sporting quality to this bird, which compete with it for food and shelter. In an ill-advised and ignorant attempt to increase birds for shooting, extermination of predatory animals, such as lynx, has resulted in total extermination of grouse in the same areas, as the predators served as indispensable checks on disease epidemics among the birds. This is the bird celebrated for its drumming in springtime, a familiar and characteristic noise of the northern woodland. This is produced by rapidly beating the wings against the air while the bird stands on a fallen log or other convenient platform which, however, contrary to common belief is unnecessary for the production of the noise. The courtship practice of the bird is a strutting with erect head, extended chest, wide spread tail, and raised shoulder ruffs. Its food consists of grains, buds, leaves, fruits, and insects, the latter forming about ten percent of the whole and consisting largely of injurious beetles. The diet has been carefully studied, and the bird pronounced a very valuable asset to the agriculturist.

To many, the most interesting bird of Glacier is the water ouzel. Often when one stops to look at Logan or McDonald Falls in McDonald Creek, one can see an ouzel bobbing and dipping on the rocks along the dashing stream, or flying close to the water, following every bend in the stream, as it utters its metallic call notes. There are people who would gladly tramp a score of miles to see this bird, others who would journey a hundred miles on foot just to see its nest or hear its beautiful song. John Muir spoke of it as the "mountain stream's own darling, and the humming bird of blooming waters". Ouzels often build their oven shaped nests of moss, oftentimes behind the spray of a waterfall thru which he must fly in order to reach it. The bird, scarcely as big as a robin, is gray and wren-like in shape. With feet unwebbed, the bird walks or flies right into and under the water to get food. He is usually quiet in summer months, preferring to burst forth in a glorious medley of rolls and trills when weather is coldest and stormiest. The singing of the water ouzel has brightened the lonely trips of many a park ranger on his winter patrols.

Visiting the brilliant flower beds between the Glacier Park Hotel and the railroad station in summertime are numerous rufous humming birds of brick-red color and fire flashing gorgets. They dart thru the sunshine, remain poised on humming pinions, dash into the chalice of some inviting flower. The rufous is one of four different hummers found among the brilliant flowers of the park. About midsummer, the bird disappears; just where he goes has never been ascertained. The tiniest bird is the Calliope hummer, which is scarcely over three inches long, of which half is bill and tail. It is common among flower beds in Alpine meadows. Its most striking feature is a gorget of bright lavender streaks.

The question is sometimes asked, "which bird is the sweetest singer?" The answer of course depends upon the individual taste. The purple finch, blackheaded grosbeak, fox sparrow, greentailed towhee, solitaire, and hermit thrush have been given preference by many bird lovers.

In early summer, the willow borders of lake shores and shrub-covered mountain sides ring with the medleys of slate-colored fox sparrows. The bird is built like a large, glorified song sparrow. His voice is often blended with that of a fine-singing cousin, the white crowned sparrow which has a strongly contrasting black and white striped head. The white-crown is abundant thruout the park to timberline.

The fox and white-crown sparrows belong to the sparrow family, the largest and most important family of perching birds. Being primarily seed-eaters the individuals have conirostral bills that combine great delicacy of touch with firmness for cracking seeds. Some of the members of the family are beautifully colored and some, like the two mentioned, are superb singers. In addition to sparrows proper, the family includes the finches, grosbeaks, buntings, longspurs, juncoes, towhees, siskins, cardinal and canary. It is deplorable that the exotic English sparrow, rat of the bird world, has added such bad repute to the word sparrow that it has beclouded the family as a whole, which is of great desirability.

On Logan Pass as on the other high passes and on glaciers of the park, another sparrow, with general body cover of deep, chestnut brown, washed with a pinkish suffusion, is the leucosticte or rosy finch. It is a bird of bleak mountain peaks and snowbanks; it feeds on plant seed and insects carried up from the lowlands by the wind. It is one of the rare vertibrates that has been found living on the windswept peaks in the winter time. It nests in crevices among the rocks and seeks shelter there from the storm.

The pipit is a hardy little bird that nests on Logan Pass and above timberline elsewhere in the park. It is a ground-colored bird with conspicuous white outer tail feathers. It is gregarious and has a habit of dipping its tail. Like a skylark, it loves to mount high in the air and sing, and thus it is sometimes called titlark or American skylark. It winters in the mud flats, sand dunes, and bare ground of warmer climes.

A bright blue flash on the highway, the mountain bluebird, is the most highly developed bird found in America. The male is a brilliant blue, except for paler legs and tail. The female is pale bluish-gray thruout. The bluebird's habits of remaining poised in the air with rapidly beating wings like a hummingbird, and of gracefully placing wings back to back like a butterfly when alighting, and its marvelous, cheerful song endear it in everyone's heart. The Montana bluebird does not possess the brown breast of the Eastern or Western bluebirds; it is a typical summer resident above the Transition Zone.

In a popular vote, Glacier Park visitors chose the round-bodied, white-tailed ptarmigan as the park bird. This is befitting for this plump Arctic bird, embodying characteristics associated with this rugged mountain region is well distributed throughout all higher elevations as a most interesting avian feature of the Alpine-Arctic fauna.

The distribution of ptarmigan is circumpolar, extending southward only where high elevations sustain boreal conditions. It is thought that in balmier pre-glacial times, these birds lived only in northermost lands but that they were forced southward by the growing Ice Age. After the culmination of the most recent Ice Age, as climates grew less severe, ptarmigan with their associated life forms followed in the wake of retreating ice masses, followed them up mountain flanks as well as northward, so that today they are found on isolated, Alpine islands which are the summits of our highest mountains.

Both Arctic and Montanan species of ptarmigan migrate with changing seasons, but in a noteworthy fashion. It is known that the birds are strong fliers, since banded birds have been taken on islands separated from banding stations by several hundred miles of islandless sea. Park ptarmigan are seen near the mountain tops in summer, but on lower slopes in winter, yet few people have ever seen one fly. In the tell-tale snowfall of early autumn, one can follow the tireless trend of these little walkers all bearing a general trend from the summer home. And so, one is led to believe that these birds perform their seasonal migrations walking most, if not all, of the way.

Ptarmigan undergo most interesting seasonal changes in plumage, having distinct patterns for summer, fall, and winter, but always there are found puzzling mixtures resulting from imperfect moults. In summer, the plumage of the well-groomed bird is barred, resembling somewhat the covering of the barnyard Plymouth Rock. In autumn, an intimate salt and pepper mixture is in vogue. In winter, the plumage is white and blends perfectly against a background of snow. This small grouse has completely feathered legs which serve as excellent snowshoes.

Besides the white-tailed variety, specimens of the larger willow ptarmigan have been seen and taken within Glacier Park. During winter, the latter bird has a black tail; its scarlet eye-combs appear prominent in the spring.

Ptarmigan are very fearless; in summer, the park visitor sees them in the high country only; their appearance adds pleasure to an outing on horseback. Quite frequently, one becomes aware of their presence by hearing a hen calling softly to her chicks, but only good eyesight reveals the bird that blends so effectively into its surroundings.

Many parties have been fortunate enough to come across a ptarmigan family in its Alpine home. The droll, downy chicks scurry hither and thither in interrupted progression, reeling as they stop as if to lose balance, and picking at plant seeds or bright objects. The mother hovers over them just like the barnyard hen, but without the aggressive attitude.