PTARMIGAN. 95 



and some contemporary writers, these birds were 

 once found on the hills of Westmoreland and Cum- 

 berland; and, we believe, recollections even exist 

 of a few having been seen upon the high ranges 

 which appear on the opposite border of Scotland. 

 These have been for some time extirpated, and 

 unless a few solitary pairs remain on Skiddaw, or 

 some of its precipitous neighbours, the range of the 

 Grampians will be its most southern British station. 

 They inhabit the most barren and rocky spots, 

 often where nothing is to be seen but an interminable 

 series of rugged rocks distributed in boulder masses, 

 varying in size from huge lumps to pieces of a few 

 inches in diameter. Here, during spring and sum- 

 mer, the pairs and their broods remain almost the 

 only inhabitants, and are discovered with the greatest 

 difficulty, the mixture of the colours of the plumage 

 forming a tint which harmonizes with that of the 

 grey rocks around. At this season they are also 

 tame and familiar, running before the intruder, and 

 uttering their peculiarly low wild call, which is 

 often the means of their discovery. In this way 

 they will often reach the opposite edge of the rock, 

 and will, as it were, simultaneously drop off; but the 

 expectation of finding them on some lower ledge 

 will be disappointed, for they have, perhaps, by that 

 time, sought for and reached the opposite side of 

 the mountains, by a low, wheeling flight, as noise- 

 less as the solitudes by which they are surrounded. 

 The nest is made under the rocks and stones, and 

 is very difficult to be found, for the female, on 



