20 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



nearly uniform speckled grey ; the fourteen under tail feathers 

 black ; the wings, the under surface of the body, and the legs 

 white. The length of a male is fifteen inches and a quarter; 

 the female is smaller than the male, and is pure white in 

 winter, like the male already described, except that she has 

 no short black feather before or behind the eye. By the end 

 of April, the female has assumed almost as much mixture of 

 feather (barred black and ochrous yellow with white tips) as 

 the male bird has of those which are grey. According to 

 Yarrell, a female bird from Scotland bought in the London 

 market, during the second week in May, 1839, was much 

 further advanced, having the whole of the head, neck, back, 

 rump, upper tail coverts, upper part of the breast and sides, 

 covered with feathers of greyish black arid yellow in bars, 

 many of them still retaining the white line (see " Yarrell's 

 British Birds," vol. ii. p. 367.) In September the upper 

 surface has become of a mottled grey, and the under patches 

 have some grey feathers among the yellow ones; as the 

 autumn advances, the yellow feathers are shed, and then the 

 grey ones, leaving the plumage of a pure white. The length 

 of the female averages fourteen inches and a half. Like the 

 red grouse, the ptarmigan pairs early in spring, and the hen 

 lays eight to ten eggs, generally on the bare ground, among 

 large stones. The eggs are yellowish white, sparingly blotched 

 and spotted with dark brown, length one inch and two- 

 thirds, breadth one inch and a sixth. The ptarmigan feeds 

 on the berries, seeds, and young shoots of alpine plants. The 

 brood or family keep together till the depth of winter, when 

 they break up. They have never been reared in confine- 

 ment; but in a wild state they are not so difficult to approach 

 as the red grouse, sometimes appearing to be actually so dull 

 and stupid, that, as Mr. Colquhoun asserts, by throwing a 

 stone at the pack they may frequently be made to crouch 

 on the ground till they are walked up. According to Mr. 

 Macgillivray, " When squatted, 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 any sign of hostility. If you throw a stone at him, he 

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



