A PTARMIGAN DAY. 



Ox the west coast of Scotland the very name 

 ptarmigan implies loneliness and grandeur. In 

 the north, where, from the greater prevalence of 

 green stony ground, the birds become far more 

 numerous, and the hills that allure them are more 

 easily climbed and travelled, the association of 

 this lonely denizen of the rocks with our sterner 

 scenery is to some extent weakened. But on the 

 western chain of the Grampians the very moun- 

 tains themselves would lose caste both in romance 

 and sublimity were their summits deserted by the 

 alpine grouse. 



So inaccessible are the breeding-places of the 

 white grouse in the Western Highlands of Scot- 

 land, and so scanty is the stock of this game, that, 



