92 PTARMIGAN SHOOTING. 



says, he shot a batch of them on the top of some 

 mountain near Loch Ennoch. Mr. Elaine, in his 

 Encyclopaedia, also deals with it very cavalierly. 

 Now, there is no doubt but that it is a bird admi- 

 rably in keeping with the districts in which it is 

 found. Perched among the grey rocks, of which it 

 seems a broken fragment, its wild look contrasts 

 strangely with the disregard it manifests of man's 

 presence. You cannot roam over the savage soli- 

 tudes it inhabits, and look on the absence of all 

 knowledge of civilization its demeanour denotes, 

 without being strongly reminded of the stanza in 

 the story of Alexander Selkirk: 



" The beasts that roam over the plain, 



My form with indifference see ; 

 They are so unacquainted with man 

 Their tameness is shocking to me!" 



Like deer-stalking, and a visit to Corinth, it 

 isn't everybody who has had a turn with the white 

 bird of the mountains. We therefore take the 

 liberty of borrowing Mr. Colquhoun's description of 

 a day with the ptarmigan ; it is his second day : 



" When we got to the foot of Ben-Voirla, we 

 found that there were two packs, on what is called 

 the second top, and were thus saved the trouble of 

 scaling the highest. So, taking two young farmers 

 as guides, we reached the ground after a stiff climb. 

 On ranging one side of the mountain, just as we 

 were turning round to the other, the dogs ran into 



