PTARMIGAN. 2o 1 



' before that period, but I understand that they 

 6 are not uncommon in Morayshire. 



' One of my last excursions in Sutherland was 

 ' to the highest summits in pursuit of Ptarmigan. 

 ' The habits of this bird are well known, but they 

 4 cannot fail to strike every one who observes them, 

 ' as an instance of the adaptation of animal life to 

 ' peculiar and unpromising localities. Closely re- 

 ' sembling as they do the grouse, they seem to 

 4 abhor the heather, in which the latter delights, 

 6 and in no instance did I find a single bird of the 

 ' species within the verge of that vegetation. It is 

 ' only where the bare grey rock juts out of the 

 ' earth, that they are to be found, and no painter 



* could imitate more accurately the general hue of 

 4 that rock, than does the summer plumage of its 

 ' resident, which, as we all know, in winter, like the 

 ' coat of the mountain hare, becomes as white as the 

 i snow it then inhabits. This last mentioned ani- 

 ' mal, at this season of a blueish grey, has increased 

 ' in our hills to a degree very inconvenient for 



* grouse shooting, as it constantly puzzles and dis- 

 4 tracts the pointer. I never used to meet with 

 ' them, but the solitude produced by the sheep- 

 ' farming system has led to this increase. 



' The mountain life would seem to be very fa- 

 ' vourable to health and longevity. My guide to 

 ' the highest hill I climbed was a man who had 

 ' exercised the profession of fox-hunting for forty- 



