72 BRITISH BIRDS 



buff bars, after which they again assume the breeding plumage 

 (November - June). The female is smaller. In breeding 

 plumage (April-July) she resembles the male in his autumn 

 dress, and may further be distinguished by having merely 

 a bare red patch over the eye instead of the red crest -like 

 erections of the male. From August to March she wears 

 the breeding costume of the male. Like the male, the females 

 vary in coloration, some being redder, others blacker, and 

 others white-spotted, or, more usually, buff-spotted. An Irish 

 variety has the upper-parts barred buff and black. The 

 fledglings are not unlike the female in her breeding dress. 



Nest. On moorland. A scrape among heather or coarse 

 herbage, lined with grasses, moss, feathers, &c. 



Eggs. Usually 7-12. Whitish to creamy, sometimes with a 

 reddish tinge, more or less heavily and closely blotched and 

 spotted with reddish or blackish-brown. Av. size, T79 x 1*25 in. 

 Laying begins in April, sometimes earlier. One brood. 



146. Ptarmigan [Lagopus mutus mutus (Montin)]. Resi- 

 dent. Breeds on the mountains of Scotland. More or less 

 stationary. 



Bird. Length 14J in. Distinguished at all seasons from the 

 preceding by the large but varying amount of white on the 

 wings. Three seasonal changes of plumage. The male (1) 

 from April to July has the upper-parts blackish with a barred 

 and mottled pattern of rusty grey, and the under-parts white, 

 except the forebreast, which is brown more or less mottled 

 rufous ; (2) from August to October the upper-parts grey with 

 black-and-white pattern, under-parts nearly all white ; (3) from 

 November to March all white except the black on the tail- 

 feathers, lores, and eye-stripe. Birds living at the highest alti- 

 tudes appear to retain the white longer than birds lower down. 

 The female in period (1), April- July, has the pattern of the 

 upper-parts mostly buff, rufous-buff, grey, or white on brown ; 

 in period (2), August-October, she is darker than the male ; 

 and in period (3), November-March, differs in having no black 

 on the head. The fledgling is mostly blackish with rufous-buff 

 markings, and brownish-black and buff primaries. 



Nest. Usually above 2000 feet on mountain-sides. A scrape 

 on the ground, unlined, or more or less scantily lined with 

 moss, ling, and feathers. 



Eggs. Usually 8-9. Like these of the red-grouse, " but, as a 

 rule, the ground-colour is whiter, the markings more sparingly 

 distributed and blacker, with less of the rich deep red-brown " 

 (Jourdain). They are slightly smaller. Av. size, 1 '70x1 '20. 

 Laying begins about the third or fourth week in May. One 

 brood. 



