GAME BIRDS. 115 



rally flushed very near the gun. I am not quite sure that a 

 sportman can be better dogged for grouse shooting, than with a 

 couple of spaniels, and an old, staunch pointer, unless he is a very 

 dilatory or slow shot, or is startled when birds rise unexpectedly, 

 and requires every bird to be pointed. It is the power to bring 

 down, in good style, bird after bird, thus flushed, that makes 

 apparent the difference between the good shot and the indifferent 

 one. 



The Irish setter is in much request on the Scottish moors. 



The season for grouse shooting commences on the 12th August, 

 and ends on the 10th December. The penalties are the same as 

 before stated as to black game. Upon grouse mountains or 

 wastes, the occupier is forbidden to burn heath, furze, &c., be- 

 tween the 2nd February and the 24th June, upon pain of being 

 committed to the House of Correction, there to be whipped and 

 kept to hard labour, for a period not exceeding one month, or less 

 than ten days. 



THE PTARMIGAN, WHITE GROUSE, OR WHITE GAME, 



Is very nearly as large as the red grouse; weight, about 19 

 ounces ; its bill is black ; in its summer plumage, the upper parts 

 of its bod/ are of a pale brown, or ash colour, mottled witli small, 

 dusky spots and bars ; the bars on the head and neck are some- 

 what broader, and are mixed with white ; the under parts are 

 white, as are also the wings, except the shafts of the wings, which 

 are black. In the month of September, it begins to change its 

 plumage, and about the middle of October, it is of a pure white, 

 excepting that, in the male, there is a black line between the bill 

 and the eye. The tail consists of sixteen feathers ; the two middle 

 ones are ash-coloured, in summer, and white in winter ; the next 

 two are slightly marked with white, near the ends ; the rest are 

 wholly black ; the upper tail coverts are long, and almost cover 

 the tail. As in all this genus, the legs and toes are completely 

 covered with hair-like feathers, to the very claws ; and in winter, 

 so deep and thick does the covering become, as to give to the legs 

 the appearance of a "hare's-foot." Small, closely-set feathers also 

 invest the beak, which increase during the colder season, till little 

 more than the point of the latter is visible. A naked skin rises 

 above each eye. As spring advances, the ptarmigan begins to 

 lose the pure white of his plumage, and regains his variegated, 

 summer dress. They are found in most of the northern parts of 

 Europe, even as far as Greenland, where they brave the Severest 



