322 A SPKING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



breast, covered with black zigzag lines on a rusty- 

 yellow and white ground, the white colour most 

 apparent on the belly. By the second week in 

 June this dress was complete in most, although 

 the birds vary much in shading, scarcely two 

 being exactly alike, when it all at once became 

 much darker. In fact we may describe the summer 

 dress of the female ptarmigan thus : throughout 

 the whole of May the ground plumage was white, 

 here and there speckled with mottled rusty yellow 

 and black feathers, which, as in the males, appeal- 

 first on the head and neck, then on the back. By 

 the third week in May the body is thickly speckled 

 with these mottled feathers (some intermingled 

 with the white, others shooting out from the skin 

 under them), so we are not at all surprised that 

 early in June a sudden change takes place, and all 

 at once the bird assumes its early or first summer 

 dress as above described. This appears gradually 

 to darken as the season advances, the dark brown 

 Colour occupying much more space, the yellow 

 feather edges becoming much fainter, and by the 

 beginning of July the female has assumed a totally 

 different and much darker dress. About the end 

 of July we see some small blue feathers shooting 

 out among the rusty brown ones, and this appears 

 to be a true moult, and not a change in colour of 

 the feathers. The bird now assumes a beautiful 



