GAME BIRDS. 117 



Mountain berries and heath shoots supply their food in summer, 

 and buds and leaves in winter; and at this season, the birds are 

 obliged to burrow, under the snow, partly for shelter, and partly 

 in quest of food. A variety of this bird, previously supposed to 

 be confined to America, has been lately found in Scotland the 

 rock ptarmigan, which resembles the common ptarmigan very 

 much in plumage ; in both birds, the plumage is of the most 

 unsullied white, during the winter. The size is less than the 

 common ptarmigan. 



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 large lumps, 

 to pieces of a few inches diameter ; there, during spring and sum- 

 mer, they pair, and their broods remain 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 gray rocks around. At this season, they are also 

 tame and familiar, running before the intruder, and uttering their 

 peculiar, low, wild call, which is often the means of their dis- 

 covery ; in this way they will often reach the opposite edge of a 

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

 tation 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 mountain, 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, where the hen deposits ten or 

 twelve eggs, of a dirty white, spotted and blotched with Kufus- 

 brown, and is very difficult to be found ; for the female, on perceiv- 

 ing a person approach, generally leaves it, and is only discovered 

 by her motion over the rocks, or her low, clucking cry. The 

 young run about as soon as they leave the shell, and are quite on 

 the alert, concealing themselves with great skill, on the approach 

 of danger. In winter they descend lower, but seldom seek the 

 plains. Both old and young assume the colour of the lichen- 

 coloured rocks they frequent, which preserves them, both from 

 the sportsman and birds of prey ; and in the winter, becomes as 

 white as the surrounding snow. It is by no means a shy bird, 

 but will suffer the sportsman to approach very near. After the 

 breeding season, both old and young associate in large flocks, con- 

 sisting of forty or fifty individuals. 



Of the number of ptarmigans imported during the latter part of 

 the winter and early in the spring, from Norway, Sweden, &c., 

 to the London market, few persons have an idea. "On one ocpa- 



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