THE PTARMIGAN 101 



only a few yards in front of us, and directly we diverged 

 from their line of retreat squatted quietly among the 

 rocks. Another experience I had of the White Grouse 

 occurred on August 14th, 1913, on Ben Mac Dhui. The 

 birds — a cock and a hen — were on the summit plateau 

 at a height of quite 4200 feet above sea-level, and showed 

 such extreme tameness, refusing to take wing as I ap- 

 proached, that I was able to observe their state of plumage 

 and to notice that in both cases the legs had already as- 

 sumed the winter covering of white feathers. 



During windy weather Ptarmigan are sometimes 

 difficult to approach, but this is by no means always the 

 case, as I have been able to walk to within a few yards of 

 a pack on an open hillside with a strong wind sweeping 

 across from the west. 



In the Ptarmigan country it is late before spring 

 arrives to thaw the frozen wastes and to liberate the 

 hill burns from the grip of the ice. In fact, it may be 

 said that there is no real spring on the high hills, only 

 winter and summer. For days, maybe, during the 

 month of April the mountain-tops are shrouded in 

 driving storm clouds and the plateaux are swept with 

 blinding blizzards of snow. Even in May these blizzards 

 often continue, and at the beginning of this month the 

 high hills of the Ben Nevis and Cairngorm range not 

 infrequently carry a greater covering of snow than during 

 any other time of the year. Then, in mid-May, perhaps 

 with little or no warning, weeks of northerly winds and 

 arctic conditions give place to cloudless days, when the 

 sun shines forth from a sky of azure blue and when, 

 under the influence of the strong rays of sunlight and 

 of soft currents of wind from the south, the snow dis- 

 appears rapidly from even the highest grounds. All life 

 is quick to respond to the change. The Dotterel and 

 the Wheatear arrive to mark out their nesting sites for 



