PTAEMIOAK.] 



SHOOTING, 



[gkouse localities. 



spotted with brown. There is no form of nest 

 prepared; they are laid on the bare ground. 

 In winter the birds congregate in flocks ; and 

 they are so little accustomed to the devices of 

 the fowler, that they suffer themselves to be 

 easily taken either with the snare or the gun. 

 They feed on the wild and rough produce of 

 the hills, which imparts a bitter taste to their 

 flesh, though it is not by any means unpalata- 

 ble. It is of a dark colour, and, in taste, re- 

 sembles that of the hare. 



This kind of grouse has attracted the atten- 

 tion of sporting writers, on account of the 

 singularity of its character and habits ; and 

 many valuable reflections on the general har- 

 monies of nature have been made on the sub- 

 ject. It is contended that its plumage is ad- 

 mirably and singularly adapted to the general 

 appearance of the grounds it frequents. The 

 brown patches of heath, on the rocky declivities 

 of the mountains, are so assimilated to the 

 broken and blended tints of the summer plu- 

 mage of the bird, that it is very favourable for 

 the purpose of concealment. When the whole 

 country is covered with snow, and presents one 

 extended mass of dazzling white, the dress of 

 the bird is again suited to this change of 

 nature, and greatly assists in its preservation. 

 The plumage is now not only white, but very 

 thick and downy; and even the legs are thickly 

 clothed with feathers resembling hairs, which 

 secure the limbs to the very toes. 



As we have already intimated, the ptarmigan 

 family are to be met with in all the elevated 

 and Alpine regions of Europe, and in North 

 America. 



" The }ialac8s of Nature, whose vast walls 

 Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, 

 And tluoned Eternity in icy halls 

 Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls 

 The avalanche — the thunderbolt of snow ! 

 All that expands the spirit, yet appals, 

 Gather round these summits, as to show 

 How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man 

 below." 



In Greenland they are taken by nooses, 

 hung to a long line drawn by two men, who 

 drop them over their necks. They eat them 

 with train oil, or lard ; and tlicir skins are 

 "■onverted into shirts to wear next the skin. 

 The Laplanders take them by forming a hed^e 

 with the boughs of birch trees, leaving small 

 53G 



openings at certain intervals, and hanging on 

 each a snare. The birds being tempted to 

 come and feed on the buds of catkins of the 

 birch tree, pass through the openings and are 

 caught. In North America, in the territories 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company, and in the 

 neighbouring countries, there are immense 

 numbers of ptarmigan taken every season. 

 And here it is curious and instructive to notice, 

 that as the frost becomes intense, the feathers 

 of the bird, with the exception of those of the 

 wings and tail, become double — a downy one 

 shoots out from the base of each, which pro- 

 vision seems admirably fitted to protect the 

 bird from the piercing effects of the long-con- 

 tinued cold. In the months of October and 

 November, flocks of two and three hundred 

 assemble, and take up their residence among 

 the willows, the tops of which they greedily 

 devour. Hence they are often called the 

 loillow partridge. We are told by travellers, 

 tliat their flesh is much esteemed at Hudson's 

 Bay, and in many provinces of North America. 

 Nets, twenty feet square, and supported on 

 poles, are used for their capture ; and they are 

 so numerous, that ten tliousand have been 

 taken from November to April. In the locality 

 of Hudson's Bay, they must, at one period, 

 have been extremely abundant. Sir Thomas 

 Button relates, that in the winter of 1612, he 

 took eighteen hundred dozen of these and 

 other fowl. This capture may surprise us ; 

 but the success and appetite of M. Jerome, 

 and his companions, surprise us still more, 

 when it is known that there were taken and 

 eaten, in one winter, between himself and 

 seventy-nine others, 90,000 grouse, and 25,000 

 rabbits, being about 1,125 grouse, and 312 rab- 

 bits per man. 



GROUSE LOCALITIES. 

 Even from the general conversation of sports- 

 men in London, it may be known that grouse- 

 shooting, of which they are so passionately 

 fond, has its locality principally in the north. 

 Being off to the moors, is synonymous to being 

 off to Scotland; for it is there, among the 

 hills, that the grouse is to be found ; and, after 

 the 12th of August, the gun may be heard 

 reporting its presence with a rapidity that 

 proves the fatal work in which it is engaged. 

 In former days, there used to be found con- 



