552 THE COMMON OR GREY PTARMIGAN. 



The Common or Grey Ptarmigan. 



Tetrao Lagopus. (Linn.) Lagopus Mutus. (Leach.) 



•' Admiring Nature in her wildest grace, 

 These northern scenes with weary feet I trace, 

 O'er many a winding dale and painful steep, 

 The abodes of covey'd grouse and timid sheep."— Burns. 



This bird differs from the last, being only found on the 

 highest rocky mountains of Scotland, seldom to the south of the 

 Grampians, hence never seen alive in Fife, so I need not give a 

 long, minute description of it. It is less — 15 by 24, against 16 

 and 27 inches. Its plumage turns white in winter, except a 

 black streak past and before the eye of the male and some parts 

 of the quill and tail feathers, a scarlet membrane above the 

 eyes. But the plumage varies ; the female similar in winter, 

 but without the black streak and scarlet membrane above the 

 eyes. In spring the general colour is brownish-black, with 

 narrow bars of reddish yellow, tipped with grey. In summer 

 the reddish yellow becomes greyish white. In autumn the 

 yellow disappears, substituted by mottled grey, rendering the 

 bird as difficult to be seen amongst the lichen-covered stones as the 

 white is amongst the snow in winter. A constant change of 

 plumage seems to go on in the ptarmigan, for at all times 

 young feathers are found. Feathers are of the same materials 

 as hair and nails, and play an important part in the wise 

 economy of Nature. They entangle the air and reduce specific 

 gravity, and being of the lightest and most elastic materials, 

 enables them to glide through it with the greatest speed ; and 

 when we consider that an eagle's feather is said to consist of 

 one thousand shafts, two thousand barbs, five and a half 

 millions of barbules, and fifty-four millions of cilia and hooklets, 

 we may marvel at the moulting of birds, which generally begins 

 each autumn at the tail and ends at the head. In some birds 

 — as the raven — it begins in May ; ends in August, when most 

 others begin to moult. As a rule, Nature's first dress to all 

 young birds is of an unobtrusive colour to protect them from 

 harm as well as the ptarmigan. When a quill falls from one 

 wing a corresponding one falls from the other — so wise, so 

 considerate is Nature ! But in some birds — such as the laughing 

 owl of New Zealand — they moult so fast as to be almost naked, 

 and liable to be stung to death by bees. In spring the coveys 



