April 6, 1883.] 



• KNOWLEDGE 



203 



A NATURALIST'S YEAR. 

 By Gr^vxt Allen. 



X. — PTAR M 1 GAN. 



IT may be accepted as an almost unanimous axiom of 

 epicures generally, that no game bird in the world can 

 quite come up to the British red grouse ; but the ptarmigan 

 certainlj' runs that prince of the grouse-kind a good second. 

 Though it has not the distinctive heathery (lavour of tlu- 

 Scotch V>ird, derived from the nature of its food, which 

 consists mainly of the young shoots of ling, the ptarmigan 

 has vet very ganiey flesh, and a peculiar wild taste of its 

 own, which is similarly due to its special foodstutls. It 

 feeds chiefly on the fresh green twigs of the black crow- 

 berry, as well as on the whortleberry, the willow, and the 

 sedges ; and these, while less aromatic than the heather 

 on which the red grouse subsists, are yet quite sufficient 

 to impart a decidedly moorland flavour to the young birds. 

 In autumn, the ptarmigan also lives on berries of various 

 sorts ; but for the greater part of the year it is forced to 

 confine itself to leaves and the growing tops of branches ; 

 and as these are very innutritions food, it is compelled to 

 eat large quantities at a time, so that its crop is usually 

 very full, and it digests slowly while resting. The higher 

 Scotch mountains still harbour a few coveys, but for the 

 most part our supply at the present day comes from 

 Scandinavia, where the bird remains fairly abundant. 

 Ptarmigan, indeed, are by origin an Arctic and sub- 

 Arctic species, wandering among high rocks at high 

 latitudes, or among Alpine peaks a little further south ; 

 but they do not spread to America, like their neighbours 

 the willow grouse, which arc so far cosmopolitan that they 

 ring round the world about the Arctic circle. In the 

 eastern hemisphere, ptarmigan cling to all the more elevated 

 positions, while willow grouse roam over the lowlands, 

 and Scotch grouse are entirely confined to the moors and 

 hills of our own islands. This distribution of the three 

 kinds is interesting and significant, when taken in connec- 

 tion TS-ith their habits and probable origin. 



Ptarmigan, which range highest north and furthest up 

 the mountains of all, are essentially cold-weather birds. 

 In winter, their plumage changes to pure snow-white, like 

 the coat of the ermine and the Alpine hare ; and this is the 

 condition in which they usually reach the London market. 

 Of course, to a comparatively defenceless bird, inhabiting a 

 snow-clad region, such a change of colour is imperatively 

 necessary ; for, if it were brown in winter, any one of its 

 enemies — such, for example, as the hawk or the Arctic fox 

 — would immediately discriminate it amid the snow, and 

 soon exterminate the whole race at once. As it is, 

 however, the coveys are extremely difficult to perceive, 

 and one may even walk through one without observing the 

 fact, unless one almost treads upon a bird : for the 

 ptarmigan have learnt to trust so thoroughly to their 

 perfect disguise that they usually cower close to the snow 

 whenever they perceive a man or a bird of prey, and 

 only rise when closely pressed. Even then, they alight 

 agEiin after a flight to some distance, and once more settle 

 into the soft snow so imperceptibly, that the only chance 

 for the sportsman is to take a shot from a distance at a 

 venture into the spot on which he saw the covey alight ; 

 he may then happen to kill a bird or two by mere accident, 

 as they squat in the open. A sentinel is usually posted on 

 a lump of ice to keep watch, and when he finds retreat 

 desirable, he gives a low croak, on hearing which all the 

 rest of the covey take to flight immediately in his wake. 

 In summer, on the other hand, the colour of the feathers 

 changes to a mottled grey, which stUl harmonises 



admirably with the tones of the dry grass and bracken 

 among which they lurk. In this, their alternative 

 dress, they resemble the groimd quite as much as they 

 did the snow in their winter plumage ; and one may 

 still walk among them without suspecting the presence 

 of a covey, until the sentinel bird raises his low 

 note of warning. At the approach of winter, the birds 

 pack once more, and resume their white coats. Their 

 neighbours the willow grouse, though also white in winter, 

 resemble the Scotch grouse in their summer plumage ; and 

 this tint harmonises best with the general ruddy hue of the 

 open moorlands. Our own red grouse, again, which is 

 peculiar to the British Isles, does not need to change its 

 suit in winter, owing to the comparative mildness of our 

 seasons ; and as the highest mountain tops in Scotland are 

 already monopolised by the ptarmigan, it clings to the 

 lower moors, where it has but a few days of complete snow- 

 clad whiteness during the entire year. 



Like most of the smaller grouse-kiiid in the eastern 

 hemisphere, the ptarmigan is so much engaged in escaping 

 attention that it has had no time to bestow upon the outer 

 adornment and beautification of the male birds. Its 

 enemies are too numerous, too powerful, and too lynx-eyed 

 to let any unusual or brilliant plumage have a chance of 

 success. In this respect it diflers greatly from many of its 

 American congeners, and even from the European caper- 

 cailzie, long extinct in Scotland, but now reintroduced and 

 acclimatised afresh. These larger and luckier grouse- 

 birds, enabled by their size to defend themselves against 

 their enemies, or inhabiting regions where foes are 

 fewer, have abundant leisure to bestow upon their 

 aesthetic sensibilities, and consequently have produced 

 all sorts of ornamental crests, top-knots, rufTs, and 

 other decorative appendages, in the first style of 

 art. due to the constant selective action of the hen 

 birds. The capercailzie, in the spring-time, resort to 

 their " playing-grounds " for the sake of attracting their 

 mates : and there they display themsehes and their plumage, 

 like peacocks, to the best advantage, so that the finest and 

 most attractive cocks succeed in gaining over to their harem 

 the largest number of hens. The young cocks are jealously 

 excluded and driven away by their older rivals. Similar an- 

 tics are played by the black grouse and by many American 

 species, some of which are very handsomely ornamented with 

 orange lappets and other beautiful appendages. All these 

 birds are polyganiists, and only the most decorated males 

 ever succeed in attracting a posse of mates. The ptarmigan 

 and red grouse, on the contrary, are strictly monogamous, 

 and their two sexes hardly differ from one another in 

 appearance. Their sober suits answer well to their modest 

 habits of concealment and protection. It never happens, 

 indeed, that very handsome birds take any pains to hide 

 themselves ; they are dominant races ; their brilliant hues 

 serve them as an attraction, and are always ostenta- 

 tiously displayed to the greatest advantage, often at the 

 cost of some trouble to the creatures themselves. Con- 

 versely, no birds which are protectively coloured ever 

 possess any marked distinction between the sexes ; they 

 are skulking races, and cannot afibrd the risk of bright- 

 hued crests or spotted tails. The application of this law 

 is well seen in the cases of the black grouse and the red 

 grouse. In the former instance the polygamous black- 

 cock diflers widely from his dingier mate, the grey 

 hen ; in the latter instance, both monogamous partners 

 are arrayed in almost indistinguishable plumage of pro- 

 tective reddish brown. Ptarmigan carry the similarity 

 Virtween the sexes as far as any of their race, and they are 

 also thf- kind in which the protective devices are most fuUy 

 dc\eloped, for, besides their summer and winter dresses, 



