White-tailed Ptarmigan, Lagopus leucurus, Flattop trail. The ptarmigan changes from snow-white winter plumage to a mottled brown that looks much like a granite rock in summer. Its behavior seems similar to that of a chicken; it pecks the ground like a chicken and has chicks that follow the hen. The town of Chicken, Alaska reportedly got that name because the early settlers couldn't spell "Ptarmigan".
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