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PTARMIGAN. 



Lagopvs vufgaris, FLEMING. 



" mntus, SELBY. GOULD. 



Tetrao lagopus, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



Lagopus. Lagos A hare. Pous A foot. Vulgaris Common. 



THIS beautiful bird, the Ptarmigan of the Gaelic, whose 

 snowy whiteness puts one in mind of the far-famed Campanero, 

 the Bell-bird of the Brazils, belongs to Northern Europe, 

 Asia, and America, even within the Polar circle, as the 

 accounts of the Arctic expeditions so often testify, extending 

 also in its range to more southerly districts Germany, Savoy, 

 Switzerland, and even to Spain and Italy, from Norway, 

 Lapland, Sweden, and Russia, and the Arctic regions. 



It is said also to have been an inhabitant formerly of 

 Wales and the north of England, but it has followed the 

 fortunes of the Gael to the Highlands of Sutherlandshire and 

 other counties, and there finds a comparative security, which 

 across the 'Border' it could no longer count upon. In 

 Westmoreland and Cumberland, in the neighbourhood of 

 Keswick, it was formerly to be found. 



In the Hebrides also it occurs, in the Island of Harris, 

 and, I believe, in South TJist, Lewis, Skye, Mull, and Jura. 

 In Orkney it existed till a few years ago in Hoy, but wholesale 

 slaughter effected their extermination. Mr. Dunn met with 

 it in Shetland. 



True * Children of the mist,' and free as the pure air they 

 breathe, the Ptarmigans frequent the upper parts and summits 

 of the highest mountains, where utter desolation reigns around, 

 and nature is seen in the most wild and savage beauty. These 

 scenes they never leave the mountaineer's love for his native 

 mountain is stronger than any other 'Love of one's country.' 

 In extremely severe and stormy weather they come a little 

 lower down, or take advantage of the shelter of the clefts 



