NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Suppositions Curious Alarm. 



About the beginning of October they assemble 

 in flocks of a hundred and fifty or two hundred, 

 and live much among the willows, the tops of 

 which they eat. In December they retire from 

 the flats of Hudson's-bay to the mountains, 

 where in that month the snow is less deep than 

 in the low lands, to feed on the mountain brr- 

 ries. Some of the Greenlanders believe that the 

 ptarmigans, to provide a subsistence through the 

 winter, collect a store of mountain berries into 

 some cranny of a rock near their retreat. It is, 

 however, generally supposed, that by means of 

 their long, broad, and hollow nails, they form 

 lodges under the snow, where they lie in heaps 

 to protect themselves from the cold. During 

 winter they are often seen flying in great num- 

 bers among the rocks. 



Though sometimes found in the mountains of 

 the north of Scotland, these birds are chiefly 

 inhabitants of that part of the globe which lies 

 about the Asiatic Circle. It is very rarely that 

 they are found in Denmark : but by some acci- 

 dent one of these birds, some years ago, hap- 

 pened to stray within a hundred miles of Stock- 

 holm, which very much alarmed the common 

 people of that neighbourhood; for, from its 

 nightly noise, a report very soon arose that 

 the wood where it took up its residence was 

 haunted by a ghost. So much were the people 

 terrified by this supposed sprite, that nothing 

 could tempt the post-boys to pass the wood 



