. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE WILLOW GROUSE. 495 berries that lie on the ground, aud on the buds of the wiUow and larches. The eggs of a single nest number twelve or thirteen usually. The Columbian Sharii-tail is found more to the southward. The j)lains and j)rairies of Wisconsin and Illinois abound with them. This bird is found much farther west than the prairie chicken, the latter being confined to the region east of the Mississippi valley. A strik- ing peculiarity is seen in the two middle tail-feathers being
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE WILLOW GROUSE. 495 berries that lie on the ground, aud on the buds of the wiUow and larches. The eggs of a single nest number twelve or thirteen usually. The Columbian Sharii-tail is found more to the southward. The j)lains and j)rairies of Wisconsin and Illinois abound with them. This bird is found much farther west than the prairie chicken, the latter being confined to the region east of the Mississippi valley. A strik- ing peculiarity is seen in the two middle tail-feathers being two inches longer than the others. The Willow Grouse {Lagopus ), or AVhitk PiAUMiciAN, so called, inhabits the fur countries as far north as the seventieth parallel. Between that to the fiftieth it is partially migratory. It is known to bi'eed among the Rocky Mountains on the barren grounds, and along the Arctic coasts. It assembles in vast liocks during the winter, on the shores of. WILLOW QROVSE.—Lagopus albus. (Winter Plumage.) Hudson's Bay. Many thousands of these birds are captured at Severn River. They seek the willows in winter, feeding on the buds. At night, they penetrate the snow and lie concealed, and do the same when pursued by birds of prey, working their way into a mass of snow with considerable facility. This species is an interesting example of the adaptation of plumage to surroundings as a protective means. The winter plumage is pure white, thus being as well prote(;ted as is possible to any object exposed in open plains covered with snow. As the spring comes, and the bare rocks begin to api)ear, the plumage changes gradually, both by the fading of some coloration and by the moulting t)f feathers, until the red plumage is fully assumed, closely agreeing with the reddish and gray colors of the rocks. The males are said to assume this darker plumage sooner than the females. The former mount some rocky eminences, and call upon their mates, wlio are yet bur
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
