88 TETRAONIM. 



some of them may not be ten yards distant. When 

 squatted, however, they utter no sound, their object being 

 to conceal themselves ; and if you discover the one from 

 which the cry has proceeded, you generally find him on the 

 top of a stone, ready to spring off the moment you show 

 an indication of hostility. If you throw a stone at him, he 

 rises, utters his call, and is immediately joined by all the 

 individuals around, which, to your surprise, if it be your 

 first rencontre, you see spring up one by one from the bare 

 ground. They generally fly off in a loose body, with a 

 direct and moderately rapid flight, resembling, but lighter 

 than, that of the Red Grouse, and settle on a distant part 

 of the mountain, or betake themselves to one of the neigh- 

 bouring summits, perhaps more than a mile distant." 

 Their food consists of fresh green twigs of Calluna vulgaris, 

 Vaccinium myrtillus, and Empetrum nigrum, and other 

 plants with berries in autumn : for the most part the same 

 as that of the Red Grouse. Like that species, they suffer 

 from disease in Scotland. 



Ptarmigan are only kept alive in captivity with great 

 difficulty. Dr. A. Girtanner (Zoologische Garten, 1880, 

 pp. 71-82) gives a long account of his repeated failures 

 with both old and young birds ; but at last he succeeded by 

 placing the latter with a captive Rock-Partridge (Caccabis 

 saxatilis), by whose example they learned to feed, and all 

 lived together in apparent contentment. 



An adult male shot in Ross-shire on 13th May has the 

 bill blackish-horn colour ; over the eye an erectile red skin ; 

 the lores black ; the head and neck of a mottled brown with 

 some new black-centred feathers appearing on the crown 

 and mantle ; back and upper tail-coverts ochreous-grey, the 

 centre ones longer than the tail-feathers; tail-feathers 

 blackish, tipped with white;* primary quill -feathers white, 

 with dark shafts ; secondaries and wing-coverts white, with 



* Specimens killed in spring frequently have the two long central tail-coverts 

 of a pure white, the remainder of the winter plumage ; and these might easily 

 be mistaken for the middle feathers of the tail itself. In autumn these feathers 

 are renewed, and in immature birds the central portions are lead -coloured. 



