THE PTARMIGAN. 125 



grouse poult can flutter above the heather. The 

 latter, again, when strong on the wing, has 

 fallen in thousands before the gun of the sports- 

 man, ere its report can be legally heard among 

 the birchen glens and the lower valleys where 

 the black-cock loves to dwell ; while he, in his 

 turn, now come to maturity, may be bagged 

 nearly a fortnight before the partridge; who 

 has been peppered throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land for a whole month, before 

 the gorgeous pheasant who as an exotic might 

 have been suspected of precocity is considered 

 ripe for slaughter. 



Most persons have noticed the vast numbers 

 of ptarmigan which appear in the shops of the 

 London dealers, and in the stalls of the principal 

 metropolitan markets, during the latter part of 

 winter and the early months of spring, even as 

 late occasionally as the beginning of May; but 

 comparatively few are aware that scarcely one 

 of these birds has been killed on the Scottish 

 mountains. They are imported from Lapland 

 and Norway : the greater number from the 

 western ports of the latter country. Mr. Yarrell 

 says, that in the year 1839 one dealer alone 

 shipped six thousand for London, two thousand 

 for Hull, and two thousand for Liverpool; and 

 early in March 1840, a salesman in Leadenhall 



