North American Grouse. 66 1 



and of all his wild ways and glossy plumage, and the long days 



on the heather, and of the moorlands at Dumfries, and of the old 



song: 



" And if up a bonnie black cock should spring, 

 To whustie him down wi' a slug in his wing, 

 And strap him on to my lunsie string, 

 Right seldom would I fail.'' 



May his mountain fastnesses protect him from extermination for 

 future ages, so that other explorers may be charmed as we have 

 been, amid sterility, weariness, and hunger, by his beauty of form 

 and delicacy of flesh ! 



We have thus told our tale of the North American grouse. The 

 distinctive features of the genus are the bare and bright-colored 

 patch over the eye, a short, curved bill, with the nostril covered with 

 feathers, and a hairy leg, with bare toes. Our story is not a book- 

 story, or a compilation, — it is out of the head, it may be somewhat 

 out of the heart. It does not claim to be learned, and its writer will 

 not dispute about a feather ; but all of the birds named are old friends, 

 and he dare not caricature them. 



There is another genus of this same Tetraonida family, — the 

 genus Lagopus, or hair- foot. These have the toes, as well as the 

 legs, covered with feathers. This genus includes, in North America, 

 the ptarmigan, the white-tail ptarmigan, and an Arctic ptarmigan 

 called the rock ptarmigan. Their habitat seems to be the whole 

 Arctic zone. They form the chief delicacy of the Arctic explorer, and 

 hang plentifully in the larders of the posts of the Hudson's IS i\ 

 Fur Company. When the winter is severe, they come down into the 

 Canadas; and one winter a hunting friend on the Saguenay — good 

 luck to him! — sent us a barrelful. Such friends are above all price. 



The white ptarmigan is all white, save the outer feather on each 

 side of the tail, which outer feather is black. The white-tailed ptar- 

 migan is as immaculate as snow, including all the tail-feathers. The 

 remarkable feature of these birds is that they change the colors of 

 their dress to suit the varying year, as does a fashionable lady, only 

 the birds vary the style by dressing white in winter and brown in 

 summer. This is one of those prudent plans of Dame Nature to 

 preserve a race. On the spotless plains of winter, a brown bird 



lid \ni a conspicuous object to every fox and snowy owl ; so he is 



42A 



