THE GAME-BIRDS. 255 



islands are concerned, to the stony plateaux of the High- 

 lands. It seems, though once found, according to some, 

 in Cumberland, to have never occurred in 

 the south of England or anywhere in Ire- 

 land ; and even in Scotland it steadily refuses to thrive 

 in many apparently suitable spots, both on the mainland 

 and among the islands, into which sportsmen and landed 

 proprietors have repeatedly endeavoured to introduce it. 

 The interesting part of this bird is its habit, like that 

 of the mountain hare and stoat, of changing its brown 

 summer coat to white when the snow is on the ground. 

 Even the conspicuous red swelling over the eye of the 

 male disappears in winter. He, however, retains black 

 stripes before the eyes, which serve to distinguish him at 

 once from the female and from the almost identical 

 willow-grouse in its winter garb.^ It is interesting to 

 notice that, while the stripe on the face never loses its 

 blackness, so, on the other hand, the feathers of the tail 

 are white winter and summer alike. The legs and feet of 

 this bird are very thickly feathered, and the hind-toe is 

 exceedingly short. Mr J. G. Millais relates in one of his 

 interesting books ^ a most ingenious and simple method 

 employed in poaching this bird during snowy weather. 

 The poacher merely presses into the soft snow an inverted 

 champagne-bottle, and fills half the pit thus formed with 

 grain, scattering a little more of the latter around by way 

 of attracting the birds and whetting their appetites. They 

 approach the pits, and, in trying to get at the contents, 

 overbalance and tumble in. Then the frost comes to the 

 aid of the iniquitous, and the hapless bird soon struggles 

 to death in its prison. The ptarmigan has much the same 

 food and habits and disease as the grouse. The nest and 

 eggs are also much the same. Eggs, 8 to lo, nearly i^ 

 inch ; pale brown, with reddish markings. 



1 Most of the white birds sold as "ptarmigan " are in reality willow- 

 grouse in winter clothing. 



2 Game Birds, p. 71. 



