The Life of a Ptarmigan 



November until May, while on the western seaboard the 

 hilltops are snowbound only at occasional intervals during 

 the months of winter. But day after day there sweeps in 

 from the sea the mist-laden wind from the west, so that for 

 weeks on end the hills are shrouded in cloud. The rainfall, 

 too, is far greater than on the Cairngorms, and considerably 

 exceeds one hundred inches in the course of the year. 



In short, the ptarmigan of the Cairngorms exist under 

 conditions more nearly approaching— though indeed notice- 

 ably different from — a continental climate, than do their 

 cousins who cling to the wind-swept hills of the Atlantic. 



The most striking characteristic of these ptarmigan of 

 the west is, I think, the silence of the cock birds during the 

 nesting season. Whereas on the Cairngorms these birds 

 almost invariably utter their snorting croak when the 

 intruder disturbs them in the vicinity of their nests, I never 

 once, on the Mull hills on which the species breed, 

 heard them utter any sound. Again, in the central Scottish 

 plateaux, a ptarmigan when brooding her eggs — and even 

 before incubation is far advanced — is an extraordinarily close 

 sitter. Often she will allow one to approach within a foot 

 or two of her without rising, and even when she does leave 

 her eggs she flutters only a short distance and watches 

 anxiously. But in Mull the birds whose nests I came across 

 rose from their eggs in the same manner as grouse do, and 

 vanished at top speed over the hillside, nor did I see them 

 again. In no case was the cock near at hand — as I had 

 usually found in the Cairngorms — to rise suddenly and 

 accompany the hen with cheering croak. 



These facts are, I think, worth setting down, for they 

 may in part account for the ptarmigan barely holding their 

 own on these Atlantic-girt hills. The birds undoubtedly 

 have need of the greatest care on behalf of their eggs and 

 young, for in no part of Scotland can their winged enemies 

 be so numerous as in this western island. Gulls of many 

 species, and bands of grey crows, are searching every part 



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