PTARMIGAN 159 



As the stalker sits disconsolately waiting for the mist 

 to rise, he is often surrounded by the Ptarmigan, of whose 

 presence he was probably unaware but a few moments 

 before. Now they appear to be perched on the rocks on 

 all sides of him, and brighten, to a certain extent, the 

 oppressive and death-like stillness by their harsh though 

 not unpleasant notes. But he sees them not till, per- 

 chance, there occurs a sudden rift in the gloom, and the 

 cloak of darkness that has enshrouded him is thrown 

 aside and carried away on the wings of the rising breeze, 

 to reveal in an instant a picture the surpassing loveliness 

 of which seems doubly enhanced by contrast with the 

 mournfulness of his late surroundings. In the immediate 

 foreground flutter the Ptarmigan, like little white fairies, 

 over the glistening rocks ; whilst on the green slopes are 

 grouped in graceful attitudes the ever lovely forms of 

 the children of the mist. Fear and beauty seem embodied 

 in their presence as they stand with quivering nostrils 

 and attentive ears gazing earnestly down the precipice 

 towards some distant corrie from whence wells forth the 

 repeated roar of a mighty stag. To complete the vision, 

 a transient shaft of sunlight lights with sudden force the 

 stems of the birches that fringe the loch below, creating a 

 perfected image in the glassy depths beneath. The scene is 

 but a beautiful picture, to disappear as c[uickly as it came ; 

 and landscape, deer, and Ptarmigan all fade once more as 

 the shroud of mist envelops the hill. 



no part of which he had made up his mind to leave behind, for he had not 

 only eaten the complete bodies of three Ptarmigan, but had also swallowed 

 the wings with feathers attached as well, a piece of gluttony that had cost 

 him his life. 



