From Fox's Earth 



No weasel does. Not the marten nor the pole- 

 cat ; save one. The stoat is the upland and 

 Arctic form. In summer of a weasel hue ; in 

 winter it puts on the lordly ermine, and so moves 

 like a sinuous ghost among the sandy-coloured 

 rabbits. The Lowland fox climbs up the mountain 

 side and remains red. And finding the land good 

 for food, stays in the selfsame belt with the 

 variable hare, which changes to white in the 

 winter, and lopes away over the snow. All this 

 is very interesting when it becomes clear. 



In much the same belt as the hare and the fox 

 is the grouse. Neither a Lowland form which 

 has crept up there, nor a hill form which takes 

 on the winter white, it comes midway between. 

 It is a sub- Arctic ; it once turned white. It 

 settled on the Scottish hills, and found it good 

 not to turn white. How that came about we 

 may learn elsewhere. So, season in, season out, 

 it became the red grouse. In the selfsame belt, 

 therefore, are the unchanging fox, the variable 

 hare, and the grouse, which varied once, but has 

 ceased to vary. 



Above this belt beyond the heather and 

 where the Alpines thin out to their rarest dwells, 

 in somewhat solitary state, the ptarmigan. It is 

 Scotland's Arctic bird, passing in charming detail 

 through the fascinating changes of protective 

 shading. Of all our birds ptarmigan is the most 

 strangely lovely, and of all sports ptarmigan- 



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