Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0082/00821.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 15KB | 245 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00821}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Willow Ptarmigan.--Willow Grouse}
$Subject{Tetraoninae; Lagopus; albus; lagopus; Willow Ptarmigan; Willow Grouse}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume V}
$Volume{Vol. 5:114-119}
$Family{Tetraoninae}
$Genus{Lagopus}
$Species{albus; lagopus}
$Common_Name{Willow Ptarmigan; Willow Grouse}
$Log{
Plate CCXCIX*00525p1.scf,34130025.aud
Bird Call*34130025.aud
Family*00516.txt
Genus*00524.txt
}

            (C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds; Cornell Laboratory
       of Ornithology 1990-91, 1992; Ithaca, N.Y., All rights reserved.
       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                    VOL.  V.
                        --------------------------------


                        WILLOW PTARMIGAN.--WILLOW GROUSE
                   [Willow Ptarmigan.  State Bird of Alaska.]


                              LAGOPUS ALBUS, Gmel.
                               [Lagopus lagopus.]


                    PLATE CCXCIX.--MALE, FEMALE, AND YOUNG.


     Although I have not seen this beautiful bird within the limits of the
United States, I feel assured that it exists in the State of Maine, as well as
in the northern districts bordering on the great lakes.  THEODORE LINCOLN, Esq.,
of Dennisville in Maine, shot seven one day, not many miles from that village;
and the hunter who guided me to the breeding-grounds of the Canada Grouse
assured me that he also knew where the "Red-necked Partridge" was to be found.
The places which he described as frequented by them, seemed to bear as near a
resemblance to those in which I found the species in Labrador and Newfoundland,
as the difference of latitude and vegetation could admit.  I have also seen
several skins of individuals that were killed near Lake Michigan.
     The Willow Grouse differs in its habits from the Canada Grouse in several
remarkable circumstances.  In the first place, neither myself nor any of my
party ever found the former solitary or single.  The males were always in the
immediate vicinity of the nest while the females were sitting, and accompanied
them and the young from the time the latter were hatched until they were
full-grown; and whenever we met with them, we observed that the males and the
females manifested the strongest attachment towards each other, as well as
towards their young.  In fact, so much was this the case, that when a covey
happened to come in our way, the parents would fly directly towards us with so
much boldness, that some were actually killed on the wing with the rods of our
guns, as they flew about in the agonies of rage and despair, with all their
feathers raised and ruffled.  In the mean time, the little ones dispersed and
made off through the deep moss and tangled creeping plants with great rapidity,
squatting and keeping close to the ground, when it became extremely difficult to
find them.  This is the only American species of Grouse I am acquainted with
that possesses these habits; in all others found in the United States, the male
not only leaves the female as soon as incubation has commenced, but both fly
from man and urge their young to do the same from their earliest age.
     The Willow Ptarmigan, moreover, join their broods whenever an opportunity
offers, and we found flocks of old and young, in which the latter were of very
different sizes.  This species rarely if ever alights on bushes or trees after
being frilly grown, and appears to resort at all times by preference to the
ground, living among the naked rocks of the open morasses.
     The young birds do not acquire their full summer plumage before they are
two years old.  Many of these middle-aged birds, as I would call them, which our
party procured early in the month of July, differed greatly from the older
birds, which had their broods then quite small.  They were much lighter in
colour, their tails were shorter, and they weighed less, but afforded much
better eating.  Some of them had young, but their broods were much smaller in
point of number, seldom exceeding four or five, while the old birds frequently
had a dozen or more.
     The flight of the Willow Grouse resembles that of the Red Grouse of
Scotland, being regular, swift, and on occasion protracted to a very great
distance.  They have no whirring sound of their wings, even when put up by
sudden surprise.  Whenever we found a pair without young, they were extremely
shy, and would fly from one hill to another often at a great distance.  If
pursued, they would be seen standing erect, and boldly watching our approach,
until we got to the distance of a few hundred yards from them, when they would
run from the naked rocks into the moss, and there squat so close, that unless
one of the party happened to walk almost over them, they remained unseen, and
could not be raised.  When discovered and put up, they were easily shot, on
account of the beautiful regularity of their flight.   In rising from the
ground, they utter a loud and quickly repeated chuck, which is continued for
eight or ten yards.
     Young birds shot in Newfoundland, on the 11th of August, weighed 6 1/4
ounces, and were fully fledged.  Their primaries were of a sullied white, but
their legs were not closely covered with hair-like feathers, as in the old
birds.  Although this species breeds in the districts inhabited by the Canada
Grouse, it never enters the thickets to which the latter resorts, but always
remains in the open grounds.
     One day, while in search of young Wild Geese, in a large, oozy, and miry
flat, covered with a floating bed of tangled herbage, we were much surprised at
finding there several Willow Grouse.  They were extremely shy, and flew from one
part of the marsh to another.  We procured with great difficulty two, which
proved to be barren females.
     To give you an idea of the difficulties we had occasionally to encounter,
in our endeavours to procure such birds as breed in that country, it will
suffice to say, that one of us was so mired in the flat just mentioned, that it
was with extreme difficulty another of us succeeded in extricating him, to the
great danger of being himself swamped, in which case we must all have perished,
had no aid arrived.  We were completely smeared with black mud, and so fatigued,
that when we returned, we found it impossible to proceed more than a few yards
before we were forced to sit down on the dangerous sward, which at every step
shook for a considerable space around, so that we were obliged to keep at a
distance from each other, and move many yards apart, constantly fearing that the
least increase of weight would have burst the thin layer that supported us, and
sent us into a depth from which we could not have been extricated.  But once out
of the bog, we were delighted with the success of our enterprise, and as we
refreshed ourselves from our scanty stores, when we had reached the rocky shores
of the sea, we laughed heartily at what had happened, although only a few hours
before it was considered a most serious accident.
     As I am speaking of fowling in Labrador, allow me to relate an incident
connected with the Willow Grouse.  Among our crew was a sailor, who was somewhat
of a wag.  He was a "man-of-war's-man," and had seen a good deal of service in
our navy, an expert sailor, perhaps the best diver I have seen, always willing
to work hard, and always full of fun.  This sailor and another had the rowing of
our gig on an excursion after Grouse and other wild birds.  THOMAS LINCOLN and
my son JOHN WOODHOUSE, managed the boat.  The gig having landed on the main, the
sailors, who had guns, went one way, and the young travellers another.  They all
returned, as was previously agreed upon, at the same hour, and produced the
birds which they had procured.  The sailors had none, and were laughed at.
While rowing towards the Ripley, we heard