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Some species migrate south on the approach of winter; while several, as the snowy owl, remain to prey upon the ptarmigan, the hares, and other small quadrupeds, who, like themselves, choose that dreary region for their winter home. Our travellers, as I have said, stood watching the owl as it soared silently through the heavens.
Sometimes they unaccountably forsake their old migratory routes, causing great suffering, in consequence, to the Indians. Moose frequent the region, too, but are not numerous, whilst land game, such as prairie chickens, ptarmigan, and a grouse resembling the "fool-hen," is rather plentiful.
"I have not smoked for a long time," he said at last, in a low calm voice. "For a very long time." "Nor eaten, from your looks," Shorty added gruffly. Smoke nodded and waved his hand at the ptarmigan feathers that lay all about. "Not until recently," he returned. "Do you know, I'd like a cup of coffee. It will taste strange. Also flapjacks and a strip of bacon." "And beans?" Shorty tempted.
The summer birds had by this time entirely deserted us, leaving for our winter companions the raven, cinereous crow, ptarmigan, and snow-bird. The last of the waterfowl that quitted us was a species of diver of the same size with the Colymbus arcticus but differing from it in the arrangement of the white spots on its plumage, and in having a yellowish-white bill.
It hadn't been used much of late, and he was afraid it might get lazy. "A plump chub of a Ptarmigan would grind nicely," he said to himself, smacking his lips, "but they all wear brown dresses these days, and one cannot tell them from the weeds and grass." Just then his eyes opened wide. "Can I believe it?" he whispered.
There were four newly hatched chicks, a day old little specks of pulsating life no more than a mouthful; and he ate them ravenously, thrusting them alive into his mouth and crunching them like egg-shells between his teeth. The mother ptarmigan beat about him with great outcry. He used his gun as a club with which to knock her over, but she dodged out of reach.
In short, there is scarcely any animal, whether bird or quadruped, the cry of which may not be easily imitated by a skilful use of the prairie whistle, or, indeed, as it might with propriety be called, the "menagerie whistle." In our northern cold regions, where the wild geese and ptarmigan flock in immense numbers, this trap is commonly utilized.
And when she sat on her feet, he could almost never find her at all. "You just wait, Miss," cried Little White Fox one day. "When summer comes, I'll get you!" "You will, will you!" replied Miss Ptarmigan. "How will you do it?" "Why, in the summer the snow will be gone, and the ground will be all brown. Then I will be able to find you anywhere!"
The most convincing proof of the reality of protective coloration is in the change of plumage or fur of some of the wild creatures to suit the season. In the far north, the grouse or ptarmigan, as they are called, do not keep feathers of the same colour the year round, as does our ruffed grouse; but change their dress no fewer than three times.
There fell to my lot three delectable things enough, which I take pains to remember, that the reader may not go away wholly unsatisfied from the Barmecide feast to which I have bidden him, a red mullet, a plate of mushrooms, exquisitely stewed, and part of a ptarmigan, a bird of the same family as the grouse, but feeding high up towards the summit of the Scotch mountains, whence it gets a wild delicacy of flavor very superior to that of the artificially nurtured English game-fowl.
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