114 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



we experienced, it would have been possible to have made 

 progress of a mile against the wind — all sense of direction 

 is lost, and it is with difficulty that one can draw breath. 

 Late in the evening the snow ceased to fall, but the 

 wind remaining at gale force, a continuous blizzard of dry, 

 pow^dery snow was drifted through the pass. At the level 

 of six feet above the ground, it was impossible to see more 

 than a few yards, but on the rocky hill face above, the full 

 moon shone with remarkable effect, lighting up the dark 

 cliffs and the snowy tops and showing drifting clouds of 

 smoky snow scurrying across the hill face. Throughout 

 the night great drifting continued, and so intense was 

 the frost that, in spite of a roaring fire of peat and wood 

 in the open hearth, water near the window remained frozen. 

 Next morning the quickly-flowing burn near the bothy 

 and the river in the main glen were both frozen across 

 almost everywhere — in fact, so firmly that in places it was 

 possible to stand on the newly-formed frozen snow and 

 ice of a night's growth. The drift that day, though 

 considerably diminished, was still sufficiently thick to 

 warrant us remaining within sight of our temporary 

 shelter, and it was not till the second day following that 

 which saw the commencement of the storm that we were 

 able to go once more to the corrie. That morning from 

 the bothy door we heard the croaking of the Ptarmigan, 

 although usually they are too far up the hillside to be 

 within earshot, and on climbing the hill, found the birds 

 in an obviously-exhausted state after their fight against 

 the blizzard. They were feeding energetically on the 

 tender shoots of the heather, and I noticed that when one 

 individual had pegged out a claim, the presence of a 

 second Ptarmigan within that claim was strongly resented, 

 though there was an abundance of food for both birds. 

 I noticed also that even at this season of mid-winter 

 most of the Ptarmigan had a few dark feathers on the 



