. Bird lore . r 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 in
. Bird lore . r 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 sun, and dispersing an intense, even light, the Ptarmigan *Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California. (376) . ^?^^4^^.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
