PTAKMIGAX. 207 



the young had been picked up, to go close to the person 

 taking it, as if to demand it back again; she gathers them 

 under her wings in cold and stormy weather. 



The nest, if any be formed, for sometimes the bare earth 

 is laid upon, is composed of a small portion of heather or 

 grass, placed in some slight hollow under a rock, stone, or 

 plant, and is very difficult to be detected, 'for,' says Sir 

 William Jardine, 'the female, on perceiving a person approach, 

 generally leaves it, and is only discovered by her motion 

 over the rocks, or her low clucking cry.' The male on the 

 first sign of danger has flown off, and she thus follows him, 

 the young dispersing in all directions, hiding themselves and 

 laying still under any stones, tufts, or bushes. Meyer says, 

 'It is reported that the male Ptarmigan behaves very re- 

 markably during the time when the female sits on her eggs, 

 and that under these circumstances he will sit immoveable 

 in one spot for hours together, even on the approach of 

 danger; and when stationed thus near the nest he has been 

 known to remain there, looking around on the landscape quite 

 unmoved. As soon as the young are hatched, both parents 

 become alert and busy, and towards autumn more careful, and 

 finally very shy in the winter. If the weather is fine and 

 sunny in winter, they are all again slow to move.' But the 

 male, it would appear, leaves the education of the young to 

 the hen bird, rejoining them all again later in the season, 

 and then several families pack together. 



The eggs, from seven or eight to twelve in number, of a 

 regular oval form, are of a white, yellowish white, greenish 

 white, or reddish colour, blotted and spotted with brown and 

 brownish black. 



The male in winter is pure white, except the space between 

 the bill and the eye, the feathers of which, and a few behind 

 it, are black, the shafts of the quills, and the outer feathers 

 of the tail, which are also deep black. Length, one foot one 

 inch and a half to three inches and a half; bill, blackish 

 brown; iris, yellowish brown, and the membrane over it ver- 

 milion red. In spring the forehead, head on the crown and 

 sides, neck on the back, and nape, are marked with bands 

 of brownish black and reddish yellow alternately, the former 

 the broader, and all slightly tipped with white, the bands 

 narrower in autumn, and turning to grey, followed by the 

 white of winter. Throat, deep brownish black; breast, ex- 



