498 PTARMIGAN. 



The Ptarmigan is resident in the Lofoden Islands, and on the 

 fells of Scandinavia above the limits of tree-growth, as well as in 

 the loftier portions of Finland, the Kola Peninsula, and the Ural 

 Mountains. It is found in the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps, 

 and in small numbers in Tyrol, Styria, and Carinthia, though no 

 longer in Transylvania ; while in the Pyrenees it is tolerably abun- 

 dant near the snow-line, and it is said to occur in the mountains 

 of the Asturias and Leon. In Asia, our Ptarmigan appears to 

 inhabit all the high mountains of Siberia down to the Altai and as 

 far east as Kamchatka, and a bird (not in summer dress) obtained 

 near Yokohama in Japan, at an elevation of more than 9,000 ft., 

 has been ascribed to this species. On the lower ground of Northern 

 Siberia and Arctic America, as well as in Greenland and Iceland, 

 its representative is the browner Z. rupestris, or some closely-allied 

 form ; but the larger L. hemileucurus of Spitsbergen is more nearly 

 related to the Willow-Grouse. 



The nest is a hole scraped in the soil and scantily lined, while 

 the 8-10 eggs, laid late in May, have the ground-colour, as a rule, 

 rather lighter than in those of the Red Grouse, and are smaller in 

 size, measuring about 17 by i*i in. In wet or stormy seasons the 

 various families associate or 'pack' by the beginning of August, but 

 otherwise not till winter ; they are scarcer on the extreme summits 

 of the mountains than at a lower elevation, and birds shot in the 

 highest situations are usually small in size. The food consists of 

 the green tops of ling &:c., with various kinds of berries. In Scot- 

 land the Ptarmigan suffers from disease, like the Red Grouse. 



The male in summer has a red wattle over each eye ; lores 

 blackish ; head, upper parts, long tail-coverts and flanks dark 

 brown, finely mottled and barred with greyish-brown ; tail-feathers 

 sooty-black, tipped with white; belly white. Length i4"5 in.; 

 wing 775 in. The plumage of the female is orange-tawny, barred 

 with black. In both sexes and at all seasons — except for the short 

 time that the young are in nesting plumage — the wings are white, 

 with dark shafts to the quills. In autumn the male has upper parts 

 slate-grey finely vermiculated with black ; the female is browner. 

 In winter both sexes are white, but the male may be recognised by 

 his black lores and eye-stripes ; old females, however, sometimes 

 exhibit the latter. More than nine-tenths of the so-called 

 ' Ptarmigan ' sent over to our markets are Willow-Grouse in winter 

 dress ; these may be known by their larger size, and as regards the 

 males — by the absence of any black on the lores. 



