184 LAGOPUS SCOTICUS. 



social enjoyment are prepared for him. The pleasure experi- 

 enced by the young sportsman, who, after much blundering 

 perhaps, returns from a day's long excursion, with two or three 

 braces of ptarmigan, and as many plovers, is scarcely attainable 

 by the experienced wholesale slaughterer. Indeed, it is neither 

 the quantity nor the quality of the game that aftbrds pleasure ; 

 for I have been as much delighted with obtaining half-a-dozen 

 thrushes, two or three vrater- ouzels, or a few wagtails, as an 

 entire burden of large birds, such as rock pigeons, grouse, or 

 v»'ild geese. 



The nest of the Brown Ptarmigan is found in the midst of 

 the heath, in a shallow cavity, and formed of bits of twigs, 

 grass, and sometimes a few of its own feathers, irregularly put 

 together. The eggs are from eight to twelve, or even more, 

 generally an inch and seven-twelfths in length, an inch and 

 three-twelfths across, of a regular oval form, yellowish-white, 

 pale yellowish -grey, or brownish -yellow, thickly clouded, 

 blotched, and dotted with blackish and umber-brown. The 

 young leave the nest soon after they are freed from the shell. 



Young. — At first the young are covered with a fine close 

 down of a pale greyish-yellow tint, mottled beneath with pale 

 brown, patched above with deep brown, the top of the head 

 chestnut, margined with darker brown. When about a 

 month old, they are as follows : — The bill is brownish-black, 

 the tip of the upper mandible whitish ; the irides dark ; the 

 claws pale brown ; the superciliary membrane pale red. The 

 general colour of the upper parts is brownish-black, each 

 feather edged and barred with yellowish-red ; the outer webs 

 of the quills and the tail pale greyish-brown irregularly edged 

 and barred with pale reddish-yellow. The throat and fore-part 

 and sides of the upper portion of the neck still downy, and 

 greyish-yellow. The lower parts are yellowish-grey, barred 

 with brownish-black ; the tarsi yellowish-grey. 



Young birds of both sexes, when fully fledged, are some- 

 what similar to the adult female, having the head and neck of 

 a pale yellowish-red, barred with blackish-brown ; the upper 

 parts mottled and barred with brownish-black and pale yellow. 



