THE PTARMIGAN 123 



be found anywhere in the kingdom ; ground whereon, 

 possibly, none other among British birds could survive 

 and propagate its species. Upon the barest and bleakest 

 of hills the ptarmigan lives and thrives, defying the 

 rigours of winters such as are known only at consider- 

 able altitudes. The ptarmigan in summer is a totally 

 different bird exteriorly to the white ptarmigan of the 

 snows. In the nesting season the bird puts on a hand- 

 some speckled coat, in which grey and browns pre- 

 dominate. This so perfectly harmonizes with the 

 lichen-covered rocks and boulders of its environment 

 that persons are frequently known to walk right over 

 the hen ptarmigan sitting upon her nest. A clever 

 field-naturalist and keen sportsman, the late Mr. E. T. 

 Booth, was once on a visit to the Highlands in the 

 springtime, with the object of securing birds in their 

 breeding plumage, along with their eggs and nests, for 

 an exceedingly interesting collection he was then form- 

 ing. Some time had been spent one morning in the 

 fruitless search for the nest of a ptarmigan, and it was 

 only by the merest and most unlooked-for accident that 

 the first one was discovered. Luncheon was conveyed 

 on pony-back to the hungry naturalist on that elevated 

 moorland ; on the arrival of the pony the girths by 

 which the panniers were fastened were unloosed, when, 

 to the astonishment of all gathered closely around, the 

 buckle of one of these straps fell upon the back of a 

 ptarmigan that, sitting closely upon its nest, had per- 

 mitted the pony thus to walk up to and stand 

 immediately over it. 



Jn winter, as already indicated, the plumage of the 

 ptarmigan changes to pure white, so that it again 

 assimilates with its surroundings, the snow-clad hills. 



