222 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 



on the sky-line, and a shepherd with his collie 

 stealing quietly down the glen. 



Not until the first shoulder of Ben Loy is sur- 

 mounted can the ptarmigan ground be said to 

 begin. The green plant, as necessary to the 

 existence of white grouse as heather to the red, 

 then shoots up among the incessant rock and 

 stone some heaped into shapeless masses, form- 

 ing gloomy caverns, but more often scattered 

 regularly along the hill face, like the handiwork 

 of some primeval giant. 



I had just loaded, and was about to release my 

 dogs, when from a crag above I detected two small 

 heads peering down at my proceedings. Glad 

 that my four-footed pair were still coupled, and 

 feeling confident that no birds but those I was in 

 pursuit of would be found so high, I only waited 

 to satisfy myself by the motion of one of them 

 that the two dark knobs were birds' heads, when, 

 taking sure marks, I stalked round the rocks and 

 came in on the opposite side. To my dismay, a 

 brace of golden plover, in happy security, were 

 within twenty yards of my gun muzzle ! In place 

 of stringing both sitting at one shot, with a con- 



