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, 1‘79 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 14} 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 barre 
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°70 x 1°20. 
Laying begins about the third or fourth week in May. One 
brood. 
