A VARIED BAG 367 



deceive their greatest enemies, the eagles and the falcons, and 

 they naturally rely on the device of absolute stillness to escape 

 detection by other creatures. Generally they fly away at sight 

 of an eagle, but lie stone close when a falcon comes in view. 

 The eagle can sometimes kill them on the wing, but this is more 

 frequently the falcon's method, and the birds know it. In 

 winter they change to white, and the snow affords them pro- 

 tection, not only because of its similar whiteness, but also 

 because they bury themselves in it for safety as well as for food. 

 In summer they are grey and white, showing grey from above 

 and looking white on taking flight. It is a mistake to say that 

 they feed upon heather ; the majority of ptarmigan live winter 

 and summer above the highest altitude of the heather. The 

 number of birds is nowhere very great, nor could they be ex- 

 pected to increase very much ; for the vegetation on which they 

 mostly live is scanty on their chosen rocks, and is indeed the 

 moss which grows on these apparently almost bare surfaces. 

 Were numbers large, ptarmigan would be more valued as game 

 birds, because of their greater activity in flight than the red 

 grouse. Often they fly like rock pigeons leaving their cliff 

 caves, and, unlike the red grouse, they frequently make very 

 steep angle flights at a very great velocity down hill, and then 

 they can twist and swerve and curve in a wonderful manner. 

 To be seen at their best they must be visited in October, but it 

 is dangerous work when a chance exists of a snowstorm. 

 Ptarmigan are found all round the Arctic circle, although some 

 people think the American variety a different species. The 

 birds sold in the game-dealers' shops as ptarmigan are nearly 

 always willow grouse the rype of Norway. There the 

 ptarmigan is the Fjeldrype, and in Sweden it is the Fjallripa. 

 Its scientific title is Lagopus mutus. The ptarmigan is 

 monogamous, and has from 8 to 15 eggs. Neither nests nor 

 birds are easy to find in the breeding season, and on the 

 most open spaces, where there is no covert whatever, the bird 

 frequently escapes observation ; and, besides, the croak of the bird 

 is very misleading, and will rarely assist in the discovery of the 

 locality of origin of the voice. Probably the rocks assist this 



