110 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



barring the short respite when "the hunter produced his 

 scanty pittance at noon," I had walked hard since early morn. 

 After so trying a day, three brace of ptarmigan on one's 

 shoulder were not to be " made light of," so, turning my back 

 on their mountains, I plodded the homeward ten-mile walk 

 through green morass and over heathery brae, only reaching 

 my own door when the beetle began to drone and the bat 

 to fly. 



A sprinkling of ptarmigan lingers on the crests of the 

 higher mountains of Mull, but the packs are generally few 

 in number, and difficult to find. Wishing to ascertain their 

 winter food, we took advantage of a mild day one January, 

 and wended our track to their desolate retreat of rock and 

 snow. The only game-birds that cheered the steep ascent 

 were a couple of woodcocks, flushed at our feet, and sum- 

 marily cut down. A sharp frost had shortly before so con- 

 centrated these migrants on the lower slopes, that ten or 

 twelve couple were only an average good day's sport. The 

 open weather had again completely scattered them, and a few 

 stray birds were all we might now expect. 



The labour of finding ptarmigan was much increased by a 

 light coating of snow which capped the peaks of Dundeveuch, 

 and we were warily questing the hollow which separates the 

 sister heights, when my old pointer Bob pulled up to a point. 

 He immediately began to " road," and my companion, who was 

 near him, spied the pair of birds crouched among the snow. 

 The moment he faced them, both ptarmigan started on their 

 pins, eyeing him curiously. He shot one, and the other flew 

 round the peak. It was easily found again by the dog, and 

 killed by myself. When returning, we stumbled on three 

 more at feed on a lower spur of the mountain, but having 

 already secured a pair of stuffed crops, left them for stock 

 next season. 



I inspected carefully the feeding of both these birds, and 

 found that it consisted of the tiny leaves and stalks of an 



