302 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



PTARMIGAN. 



(Lagopus muttis.) 

 Order GALLING ; Family TETRAONID^E (GROUSE). 



Description of Parent 

 Birds. Length fifteen 

 inches . Bill short, strong, 

 curved downwards, and 

 black. Irides hazel. Over 

 the eye is a piece of 

 erectile skin of a bright 

 red colour. Head and 

 neck barred and mottled 

 with black, rusty-brown, 



YOUNG PTARM.GAN H.D.NG. 



and upper tail-coverts 



pale brown or ash, mottled with small dusky spots 

 and bars. Wings white, the shafts of the quills 

 being black. Tail-quills black, tipped with white, 

 the two centre feathers sometimes grey ; chin white ; 

 throat white, mottled with brown ; breast same as 

 back ; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts white. 

 Legs and feet dull white ; claws black. 



The female is a trifle smaller ; her head and 

 upper-parts have more red, rusty-yellow, and black, 

 and less grey than in the case of the male. The dark 

 parts on the wing-quills are broader, and her under- 

 parts are darker. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground, amongst 

 heather and the short stunted vegetation growing on 

 the rock-strewn and bleak mountains of the High- 

 lands of Scotland, and some of the larger islands 

 of the Hebrides. 



Materials. A few bits of dead heather, dry 



