CAPERCAILZIE, BLACKGAME, PTARMIGAN, ETC. 59 



shadow, while prevailing over all is a cold, dull, melancholy 

 tint of grey. Deep below lies the sombre valley of dark 

 heather, flecked with white streaks of running burns, and 

 dotted here and there with lochs that look like little ponds. 

 No visible sign of life and apparendy nothing growing that 

 could support it ; and yet, on these sterile altitudes ptarmigan 

 exist and thrive and hatch their young. If the day be still and 

 warm, with birds plentiful, it will not be long ere a sharp, 

 harsh " cr-r-aik " is heard, and again and yet again it sounds ; 

 but, if the shooter be a novice, look as hard as he may, nothing 

 living will his eyes detect, and he will turn to ask Donald 

 what is making that queer noise., and get for answer: "It's 

 just ptarmigan, sir! I've been minding them some time. Do 

 ye no see them sitting right in front ? " Then suddenly a stone 

 appears to be alive, and lo ! a ptarmigan is sitting not forty 

 yards away ; then another and another gradually dawn on 

 the uneducated eye, for as yet they have not changed their 

 mottled, stone - coloured plumage for the whiter one which 

 Nature provides for them to match the winter snow ; but even 

 in the depth of the Scotch winter the hen usually retains more 

 of the grey plumage than the cock. The uninitiated may think 

 it must be very tame sport to get within visible range of birds 

 sitting on the ground, and that therefore they must be very 

 easy to kill ; but, close as they occasionally sit, and prepared as 

 the shooter is, he will yet have to shoot well to get a brace, 

 for of all game-birds ptarmigan are the quickest off their feet, 

 for their bodies are light, their wings are long, and, accustomed 

 to fly against the mountain gales, their flight is extremely fast. 

 As the shooter arrives at the heights where the grouse end 

 and the ptarmigan begin, both birds may at times be flushed 

 together, and, though the former is the heavier bird, it can 

 then be seen the wings of both are as nearly as possible of the 

 same length, which will average about twenty-five inches. At 

 various times the author has cut open the crops of ptarmigan, 

 and has always found the contents to consist of the small 



