PTARMIGAN-SHOOTING. 



four-footed ally of the crags, and made the same use of their 

 wings as she did of her legs. It was now late, but as the 

 man had some idea of where they might be, I could not resist 

 the temptation of giving them one more trial. We had 

 almost given up hope, when they a third time rose, very wild, 

 fully a hundred yards off, from a knoll of moss where they 

 were feeding. My time was now " up," so I descended the 

 mountain well pleased with my day's sport, notwithstanding 

 the mishap at the end. 



The woodcut represents a ptarmigan in its common attitude, 

 cowering under shelter of a stone ; the other is perched upon 

 the top of a rock an equally characteristic situation. 



A PTARMIGAN DAY. 



On the west coast of Scotland the very name ptarmigan 

 implies loneliness and grandeur. In the north where, from 

 the greater prevalence of green stony ground, the birds become 

 far more numerous, and the hills that allure them are more 

 easily climbed and travelled, the association of this lonely 

 denizen of the rocks with our sterner scenery is to some ex- 

 tent weakened. But on the western chain of the Grampians 

 the very mountains themselves would lose caste both in ro- 

 mance and sublimity were their summits deserted by the 

 alpine grouse. 



So inaccessible are the breeding-places of the white grouse 

 in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and so scanty is the 

 stock of this game, that, always excepting shepherds, few of 

 the natives have seen, and some never even heard of, such a 

 bird. 



" Ptarmigan ground " is therefore a most appropriate title 

 for the magnificent cluster of mountains at the head of 

 Loch Lomond, where every bald and rugged peak, capped 

 with snow or shrouded in mist for half the year, has always 



