160 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



In such scenes of alternate gloom and magnificence do 

 the Ptarmigan pass the greater part of the year, descend- 

 ing only to the Grouse-ground in the early summer mornings 

 or during the severer storms of winter, when Nature casts 

 her white mantle over their homes and forces them to 

 seek their food and shelter at a somewhat lower elevation. 

 Even at such times it is their habit to spend a good part 

 of the day burrowing in the snow, or sitting and basking 

 in the winter sun on some of the more projecting rocks 

 from which the snow may have drifted and left bare. 



These rocks are generally chosen as points of vantage 

 from which they can command a good view of all 

 approaches : they can thus obtain an immediate knowledge 

 of the advent of their most dreaded foe, the Golden Eagle, 

 and on the signal being given by one of their number there 

 is a general disappearance and sudden assimilation to the 

 rocks that would certainly deceive any eyes but those 

 which they are intended to. Probably the Eagle has a 

 far better knowledge of the habits of his victims than 

 man, and he knows full well the spots which they frequent 

 at certain hours of the day and the direction of their 

 retreat if flushed. For this reason it is by no means an 

 unusual sight to see the Golden Eagle (generally the male 

 bird) doing a little amateur driving on his own account 

 and that of his spouse. This may be described as follows : 

 while the hen bird takes her post on some overhanging rock 

 on the face of a hill or exit of a corrie, the cock sails away 

 high in the air till he has reached the end of the ground 

 that he intends to beat ; he then descends and proceeds 

 to systematically range the rocks up and down as regularly 

 as a setter, in the direction of his mate. Game is soon 



