20 
England ; it is not present in the islands of the outer Hebrides 
or in Orkney and Shetland; the vegetation on these mountains 
is scanty, the surface is full of large grey boulders. This 
animal is a beautiful illustration of adaptation of its colour to 
the surroundings. The summer fur is of a dull grey colour, 
resembling the boulders; when the winter snows are on the 
ground the fur changes to a pure white. The ptarmigan (7’etrao 
lapogus) is now found only in a few mountains of central 
Scotland, and, like the white hare, is extinct in England. The 
summer plumage is dull grey, corresponding with the boulders” 
in summer, becoming with the snows nearly pure white. When 
disturbed it has a low flight, bobbing about the boulders. 
I refer to the summer flight (this was observed on Mount 
Schiehallion in Perthshire, Anglicé, ‘‘ Mountain of storms”’). 
The white hare has a wider vertical range than the ptarmigan, 
but the geographical range is more similar. Like the white 
hare it is not found in the Western Hebrides or Orkney and 
Shetland. It is difficult to account for this absence, for some 
of the mountains of the Islands of Skye and Shetland are 
similar to those which it frequents in Scotland, and they are 
much nearer their chief habitat, Norway and Iceland. It may 
have been caused by the islands remaining longer glaciated ; 
this is more probable by the absence of other forms of life—for 
example, frogs, &e. 
The ptarmigan is found in North America, slightly different 
from the Scandinavian variety. The latter is the species abun- 
dantly exhibited in the shop windows in Brighton, and is rather 
smaller than the Scottish variety. The food of the white hare 
is represented on the diagram by Poa alpina. They feed mainly 
on the tender shoots and seeds,—the flowering plants, Sawifraya 
nivalis and Silene acaulis,—and all the representatives of this zone 
are entirely of an Arctic origin, survivals of the close of the 
Glacial Age in Britain. 
The next zone on the diagram, that of the red deer 
(Cervus elephas) and the red grouse (/ Tetrao scoticus ), is also of an 
Arctic character, though not exclusively so, as in the zone above. 
The red deer was formally abundant in England and Ireland in 
a wild state, it now only survives under the protection of man. 
It is the only survivor of a numerous species that inhabited the 
United Kingdom and Ireland (all destroyed, with this exception, 
by the approach of the Glacial Age). Their fossil remains, 
mainly teeth, are numerous, and have been found at the Black 
Rock, Brighton, along with the reindeer. They are protected in 
Scotland and in Exmoor, Devonshire, for sport. One forest in 
Scotland was leased for £8,000 per annum, but the sport is only 
for six weeks. The term deer forest is misleading; the word is 
used in the old Saxon meaning, as an enclosed place, for there is 
scarcely a tree in all their habitat. 
