BROWN PTARMIGAN. 175 



is met with on all kinds of surface, provided it be covered with 

 heath, whether Calluna vulgaris or Erica cinerea, from the level 

 of the sea to the height of about two thousand feet. The low 

 sandy heaths of the eastern counties of the middle division ap- 

 pear to be less favourable to it than the more moist peaty tracts 

 of the western and northern districts, where the shrubs on 

 which it feeds attain a greater size. In the central and deso- 

 late regions of the Grampians it is equally abundant as on the 

 moors of the Hebrides ; and on the hilly ranges of the south, 

 the Pentlands, the Lammermuir, and the mountains of Peebles, 

 Dumfries, and Selkirk, it is still plentiful. Yet it seems al- 

 most marvellous that a species which furnishes sport to so many 

 of the idle, and supplies with healthy exercise so many of the 

 industrious and enterprising, should continue to exist in such 

 quantities in the country. 



It is impossible to study the manners and habits of this bird 

 in continuity, owing to its peculiar mode of skulking and con- 

 cealing itself among the heath ; but a person who has for years 

 traversed the moors, started hundreds of individuals at all seasons, 

 engaged in the exciting sport of grouse-shooting, and obtained 

 specimens in spring and summer as well as in winter, may, 

 by bringing together the results of his observations, contrive 

 to furnish a tolerably correct history of it. 



It is pleasant to hear the bold challenge of the Gor-cock at 

 early dawn on the wild moor remote from human habitation, 

 where, however, few ornithologists have ever listened to it. I 

 remember with delight the cheering influence of its cry on a 

 cold morning in September, when, wet to the knees, and with 

 a sprained ancle, I had passed the night in a peat bog, in the 

 midst of the Grampians, between the sources of the Tummel and 

 the Dee. Many years ago, when I was of opinion, as I still 

 am, that there is little pleasure in passing through life dry shod 

 and ever comfortable, I was returning to Aberdeen from a bo- 

 tanical excursion through the Hebrides and the south of Scot- 

 land. " At Blair Atholl I was directed to a road that leads 

 over the hill, and which I was informed was much shorter than 

 the highway. By it I proceeded until I reached Blair Lodge, 

 where I obtained some refreshment, of which I stood greatly 



