374 TETRAONID^E. 



and if provoked to rise, take very short flights. The only 

 preservative, says a sporting friend to the late Rev. Mr. 

 Daniel, that nature seems to have afforded them, is their 

 alighting upon stones so exactly of their own colour, as to 

 render it difficult for the eye to discern them. This sports- 

 man killed forty -three Ptarmigan in one day above Loch 

 Laggan, which lies between Dalwinnie and Fort Augustus 

 in this district ; but as the season advances, and the ground 

 becomes wet and cold, they are much more difficult to 

 approach. Mr. Macgillivray also observes, that " these 

 beautiful birds, while feeding, run and walk among the 

 weather-beaten and lichen-crested 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, you may pass 

 through a flock of Ptarmigans without 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 dis- 

 cover the one from which the cry has proceeded, you ge- 

 nerally find him on the top of a stone, ready to spring off 

 the moment you show an indication of hostility. If you 

 throw a stone at him, he rises, utters his call, and is imme- 

 diately joined by all the individuals around, which, to your 

 surprise, if it be your first rencontre, 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, re- 

 sembling, but lighter than that of the Red Grouse, and 

 settle on a distant part of the mountain, or betake them- 

 selves to one of the neighbouring summits, perhaps more 

 than a mile distant. In winter several families of Ptarmi- 

 gan associate, forming a flock, and fifty in number have 

 been seen together." 



