The Life of a Ptarmigan 



more numerous than on this island. I know that in 

 Aberdeenshire they have been seen to leave one hill and make 

 for another across the valley of the Dee, but that was when 

 greatly persecuted by shooters, and so I doubt whether any 

 one of these Mull ptarmigan has ever set foot on the main- 

 land. 



A factor which may, perhaps, in part account for the 

 scarcity of ptarmigan in the west is the almost complete 

 absence of cranberry and blaeberry plants and of heather, 

 on the higher reaches of the hills. It is well known how 

 eagerly ptarmigan feed on the berries of these hill plants, 

 and I have watched them feeding with relish on the tender 

 shoots of the heather during winter snow in that well-known 

 haunt of theirs the Larig Ghruamach, that remote high- 

 lying pass connecting the headwaters of the Dee with the 

 valley of the Spey; and blaeberry stems, as well as the fruit 

 they love. 



But when the weather is fine, and the sun shines clear 

 on the hillside and deep sea loch, the ptarmigan of the west 

 have from their lofty country a prospect of unsurpassed 

 grandeur, for they exist on high and exposed ground where 

 no other bird can face the winter storms. 



It is said that the letter P in their name was inserted by 

 the French — for what reason I know not — and that the word 

 is originally derived from the Gaelic Tarmach, meaning "to 

 be the source of " and given, perhaps, to this hill dweller 

 as it was thought that from this bird originated all feathered 

 Fife. 



I remember, one day of midsummer, seeing a ptarmigan's 

 nest within a few yards of the topmost cairn of the Hill of 

 the Two Winds, and could not but remark on the wonderful 

 panorama which was laid out before the sitting bird, had she 

 the eye to see it. Two thousand five hundred feet beneath 

 her, and so close that one might imagine a thrown stone 

 might reach thus far, lay the deep blue waters of the Sound 

 of Mull. No Atlantic swell disturbs these hill-girt waters, 



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