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of the habits of this species from personal observation : 

 ' These beautiful birds, while feeding, run and walk among 

 the weather-beaten and lichen-crusted fragments of rock, 

 from which it is very difficult to distinguish them when 

 they remain motionless, as they invariably do should a 

 person be in sight. Indeed, unless you are directed to a 

 particular spot by their strange low croaking cry, which 

 has been compared to the harsh scream of the missel- 

 thrush, but which seems to me much more like the cry of 

 a frog, you may pass through a flock of Ptarmigans with- 

 out observing a single individual, although some of them 

 may not be ten yards distant. When squatted however they 

 utter no sound,' their object being to conceal themselves; 

 and, if you discover the one from which the cry has pro- 

 ceeded." you generally find him on the top of a stone, ready 

 to spring off the moment you show an indication of hos- 

 tility. If you throw a stone at him, he rises, utters his 

 call, and is immediately joined by all the individuals 

 around, which, to your surprise, if it be your first rencon- 

 tre, you see spring up one by one from the bare ground. 

 They generally fly off in a loose body, with a direct and 

 moderately rapid flight, resembling, but lighter than, that 

 of the Brown Ptarmigan, and settle on a distant part of the 

 mountain, or betake themselves to one of the neighbour- 

 ing summits, perhaps more than a mile distant.' 



In winter it appears that these birds associate, forming 

 flocks of fifty or more ; and it is also stated that, during 

 this season, they burrow under the snow, thus giving coun- 

 tenance to the statement and cut of Olaus Mugnus, copied 

 by Gesner, showing that the ' Urogalli minores' lie hid 

 ' sub nive :' to be sure, this retirement is said to be of 

 rather long duration two or three months, and ' sine cibo.' 



Mr. Macgillivray states that early in the spring the 

 Ptarmigans separate and pair. He describes the nest as 

 a slight hollow, scantily strewn with a few twigs, and stalks 

 or blades of grass ; the eggs, as regularly oval, about an 

 inch and seven-twelfths in length, and an inch and from one 

 to two twelfths across, white, yellowish-white, or reddish, 

 blotched and spotted with dark brown, the markings being 

 longer than those on the eggs of the red grouse. He 

 states that the young run about as soon as they leave the 

 shell, and are, from the first, so nimble and expert at con- 

 cealing themselves, that a person who has accidentally 

 fallen in with a brood very seldom succeeds in capturing one. 

 The parent bird it seems has recourse to the same strata- 

 gems as the partridge and other gallinaceous birds to lead 

 the intruder from her little ones. ' On the summit of the 

 Harris mountains,' says Mr. Macgillivray, ' I once hap- 

 pened to stroll into the midst of a covey of very young 

 ptarmigans, which instantly scattered, and in a few seconds 

 disappeared among the stones, while the mother ran about 

 within a few yards of me, manifesting the most intense 

 anxiety and pretending to be unable to fly. She suc- 

 ceeded so effectually in drawing my attention to herself, 

 that when I at last began to search for the young, not one 

 of them could be found, although the place was so bare 

 that one might have supposed it impossible for them to 

 escape detection.' 



This species has been reared in confinement without 

 any great difficulty, and has bred in a tame state. (Selby.) 



Every one must have observed the numbers of Ptarmigan 

 which are sent to this country early in the spring. The 

 shops of many of the London poulterers are then positively 

 white with them. These are imported from the north of 

 Europe, where they are principally taken in snares made of 

 horsehair. Mr. Yarrell states that he has more than once 

 found a hair noose round the neck of Norway Ptarmigan 

 in the London market, and that others have found the 

 same. The numbers taken are immense. According to 

 Mr. Lloyd, whom we have so often had occasion to quote, 

 one peasant will set from five hundred to a thousand of 

 these snares in the winter season. The captured birds are 

 kept in a frozen state till the dealers come ; and one of 

 these dealers will sometimes buy and sell fifty thousand 

 ptarmigan in a season. According to the calculation of 

 Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke, sixty thousand of these birds 

 were killed during one winter in a single parish, which was 

 however large. Mr. Grant informed Mr. Yarrell that he 

 was assured, when in Norway, that the number of ptar- 

 migan killed in that country every winter was beyond 

 belief: two thousand dozen, if Mr. Grant remembered 

 right, was the quantity exported from Drammen in one ship 

 for England in 1839, and great numbers, he adds, are sent 

 P. C., No. 1530. 



to the Copenhagen market. Mr. Yarrell goes on to slate 

 that besides those brought to this country from Drammen, 

 great quantities are also received in London, during the 

 months of February, March, April, and May, from Bergen, 

 Drontheim, and other ports on the west coast of Norway, 

 from whence conveyance is obtained for them in the boats 

 which bring constant supplies of lobsters to the London 

 market. ' On one occasion,' says Mr. Yarrell, ' late in the 

 spring of 1839, one party shipped six thousand ptarmigan 

 for London, two thousand for Hull, and two thousand for 

 Liverpool ; and at the end of February or very early in 

 March of the present year, 1840, one salesman in Leaden- 

 hall market received fifteen thousand ptarmigan that had 

 been consigned to him ; and, during the same week, an- 

 other salesman received seven hundred capercaillies and 

 five hundred and sixty black grouse.' 



Common Ptarmigan in winter and summer plumage. (Gould.) 



ASIATIC GROUSE. 



\Vc select the Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse, Ptcrocles scta- 

 rius, Gungn Cata, as an example. 



Description. Old Male. Throat black ; sides of the 

 lu :ul and front of the neck yellowish-ash ; on the breast a 

 largo cincture, about two inches, of rusty orange, bordered 

 iil.mf and below by a narrow black band; head, nape, 

 rump, and tail-coverts streaked with black and yellowish ; 

 back and scapulars streaked in the same way, but, towards 

 the end of each feather there is a large band of bluish-ash, 

 succeeded by another of a yellowish colour ; lesser and 

 middle wing-coverts marked obliquely with chestnut-red, 

 and terminated by a white crescent ; greater coverts olive- 

 ash, terminated by black crescents ; belly, sides, abdomen, 

 thighs, and extremity of the lower coverts of the tail pure 

 while ; tail-feathers terminated with white, and the external 

 one bordered with that colour ; the two middle feathers, 

 which are very long, slender, and of loose texture, are three 

 inches longer than the others. Total length, without reck- 

 oning the long tail-feathers, 10 inches 6 lines. 



Female differing much from the male ; throat white ; 

 below this part a large black semicollar, which only ex- 

 tends to the sides of the neck ; the cincture large and 

 orange-coloured as in the male; upper parts nearly the 

 same ; middle, lesser, and greater wing-coverts bluish-ash, 

 then an oblique reddish band, and all the feathers termi- 

 nated by black crescents ; the two long tail-feathers or 

 filaments are longer than the others by an inch and six 

 lines. 



Young, before their first moult. Plumage less varie- 

 gated ; upper parts olive clouded with ash ; the white of 

 the sides, the thighs, and the abdomen is barred with yel- 

 lowish and brown zigzags. (Temm.) 



Geographical Distribution. Very numerous on the arid 

 plains of Persia. Not very numerous in France, on the 

 sterile ' Landes' near the Pyrenees, and along the coasts of 

 the Mediterranean ; less common in Provence and Dau- 

 phine, where they occasionally arrive ; more common in 

 Spain, Sicily, Naples, and throughout the Levant. Tem- 

 minck, who gives these localities, states, in the fourth part 

 of his Mnnuel, second edition, that it is common in Pro- 

 vence, in the uncultivated plains of Crau, and says that it 

 avoids cultured tracts, and only inhabits the sterile Landes 

 of the south ; but he adds that it is abundant in the Py- 

 renees, and that it is to be found all the year round in the 

 markets of Madrid. Mr. Gould states that the species is 

 found in the North of Africa. 



Food, Habits, fyc. Seeds, insects, and the young shoots 



VOL. XXIV. 2 L 



