62 SHOOTIN(i. 



of spring the older feathers of the past year are thrown off, their 

 place being supplied by coloured ones ; wliile the^ white ones that 

 sprang up as the winter set in, gradually gaui the hue ^vhich waa } 

 then denied them. Hence, in spring, ptarmigans_ are seen m a 

 livery irregularly party-coloured ; these having acquired theh tintSj 

 win be moulted in autumn, so that no individual feather undergoes 

 i»ore than one mutation. It will be seen from this, that the mouli 

 is never simultaneously performed, but that a partial loss and acces- 

 sion of feathers, except in the depth of winter, is almost constantlj 

 taking place." 



As we have already intimated, the ptarmigan family are to b( 

 met with in all the elevated and Alpme regions of Eui-ope, and ii 

 North America. The Greenlanders capture them by nooses huu§ 

 to a long hne drawn by two men, who drop them over then- necks 

 They eat them with train oil, or lard ; and their skins are convertec 

 into shirts to wear next the skin. ' The Laplanders take them bi 

 forming a hedge with the boughs of birch trees, leaving smal 

 openings at certain mtervals, and hanging on each a snare, the 

 bh'ds being tempted to come and feed on the buds of catkins of th( 

 birch tree, and when they pass through the openings they ar< 

 caught. Li North America, in the territories of the Hudson's Ba;| 

 Company, and in the neighbouring countries, there are immensi' 

 numbers of the ptarmigans taken every season. And here it ii 

 curious and instructive to notice, that as the frost is here intense 

 every feather of the bii d, with the exception of those of the w ings an( 

 tail, becomes double — a downy pne shooting out from the base o 

 each, w^hich provision seems admii-ably fitted to protect the bird fron 

 the piercing effects of the long continued cold. In the months o 

 October and November flocks of two and three hundred assemble 

 and fix their residence among the willows, the tops of which the. 

 greedily devour as food. Hence they are often called the willoii 

 partridge. "We are told by travellers, that then- flesh is mucl 

 esteemed at Hudson's Bay, and in many provinces of Nortl 

 America. Nets twenty feet square, and supported on poles, an; 

 used for the capture of these birds; and they are so numerous 

 that te)i thousand have been taken from the November to April 



ON THE SEVERAL CHIEF LOCALITIES EOR GEOUSE. 



"Yet grouse of other kind 

 *I\\Q fowler oftcu finds, of larger growth 

 And glossy jet, ]51ack game, or llcathcock termed. 

 Nor are tlie Red on every hcaltliy moor 

 Or rocky mountain found ; full many a waste, 

 Washed by the soutliern, or tlie western main, 

 Has ne'er received them, though abundant else 

 In store of footed, or of feathered game." 



Fowling. 



We may gather from the general conversation of sportsmen ii 

 London, that the grouse shooting, of wliich they ai-e so passionatel; 



