CAPERCAILZIE AND PTARMIGAN 289 



native fauna, after a period of complete extinction, 

 is matter of satisfaction to every lover of wild 

 things. Attempts to restore ptarmigan to the hills 

 of Galloway, whence they have disappeared within 

 living memory, have not been successful so far, but 

 there need be little doubt that perseverance would 

 prevail with them, as it did in the case of caper- 

 cailzie. A shepherd, who died two or three years 

 ago, told me that he had last seen ptarmigan on the 

 Merrick, a hill in Galloway of 2700 feet, in 1826. 

 That year is still referred to in this district as * the 

 year of the short corn,' and my informant attributed 

 the extinction of ptarmigan to the great drought 

 that prevailed that summer. That may have proved 

 the last straw, but no doubt the birds succumbed 

 here, as on the Cumberland hills, to the improved 

 style of fowling-piece. In the Highlands, ptarmigan 

 are as numerous as ever, if not more so, because, as 

 their chosen haunts are generally in a deer-forest, 

 they are seldom molested by sportsmen. That the 

 southern uplands are quite suitable for maintaining 

 this lovely game-bird, let a manuscript of the seven- 

 teenth century, preserved in the Edinburgh Advo- 

 cates' Library, testify : 



* In the remote parts of this great mountain (the Mer- 

 T 



