12 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



Family TE TRA ONID^. 



THE PTARMIGAN. 



Lagopus mutus, MONTIN. 



THE Ptarmigan, though common on some of the highest mountain tops in 

 Scotland, is quite xmknown either in England or Ireland. It has been 

 re-introduced in Arran, and may be found, but in gradually decreasing numbers, 

 in the Islands of Skye, Lewis, etc., but was completely exterminated in the Orkneys 

 some fifty years ago, mainly by the Officers of the Trigonometrical Survey. It 

 is a circumpolar bird, exceedingly abundant in the North of Europe, and even 

 extends down to the Pyrenees, where it is found above the snow line. 



The plumage of the Ptarmigan varies greatly with the season of the year. 

 In summer the male bird has the head, shoulders, breast, and upper parts blackish, 

 slightly intermixed with white on the neck ; over the eye is a bright vermilion 

 comb ; the tail is black, the central feathers being tipped with white ; the wings 

 and the lower part of the body generally are white, but the primary quill feathers 

 have dark shafts. In the winter the entire plumage of the body of the male is 

 pure white, but the lores and the tail are black. The plumage of the female 

 during the breeding season may be described as tawny, barred with black, some 

 of the feathers being tipped with white. The wings and tail are similar to those 

 of the male bird, and the under parts of the body are white. In the winter the 

 female assumes the white plumage of the male, from which she can usually be 

 distinguished by the absence of the black lores, which are conspicuous in cock 

 birds at that season. 



The Ptarmigan is essentially a mountain bird, being found in high rocky 

 localities where the Red Grouse could not subsist. It is rarely seen in the moor- 

 lands, where the Red Grouse are common, unless driven by severe weather in 

 search of food. As an object of pursuit to the sportsman, it is not estimated as 

 highly as the Red Grouse, for when it is approached, in place of flying away, the 

 Ptarmigans crouch on the ground, trusting to the colour of their plumage and to 

 the herbage to enable them to escape unseen. The call is a harsh croak, usually 

 uttered when the bird is elevated on a stone ready to fly away, when all the rest 

 of the covey join him. " So closely do they crouch upon the ground, with which 



