PTARMIGAN. 33 



other colour), and well adapted for crushing the hard berries, 

 heath-tops, mosses, lichens, and even, as some say, pebbles or 

 gravel, on which it feeds. We may observe, in passing, that 

 it is a general habit with the gallinse to swallow gravel, 

 more especially when they are fed on dry and hard vegetable 

 matter; but the proportion found in the stomach of the 

 ptarmigan, perhaps, exceeds that found in the stomach of any 

 other bird. 



The head of the ptarmigan appears stupid or simple ; indeed, 

 there is little character or expression in the heads of any of 

 the order. From the gape of the bill to the eyes a black 

 streak extends, which not only remains when the general 

 plumage changes to white, but at that season stretches along 

 the upper part of the ear-coverts. That band is wanting in 

 the female. A naked scarlet spot over the eye, in the form of 

 a crescent, is another character of the male bird. 



The summer plumage is very beautifully mottled with 

 brown, grey, and white ; the quills on the wings, of which 

 there are twenty-four, have black shafts, and pure white 

 webs, which give a curious streaky appearance to the extended 

 wing. Of the tail feathers, which are sixteen in number, 

 seven on each side, and the shafts of the two centre ones, are 

 black, the webs of the latter two are mottled with brown and 

 white. 



As autumn advances, the plumage begins gradually to 

 change, the black and brown giving way first, and then the 

 grey, till by the time that the winter is confirmed, the whole 

 bird, with the exception of the eye-streak in the male, the 

 outer tail feathers, and the shafts of the middle ones and the 

 quills, become snow-white. Those changes do not take place 

 in consequence of a moult, or separation of the coloured 

 feathers to be replaced by white ones, but by an actual 

 change of colour in the feathers themselves. No doubt new 

 feathers grow towards the autumn, and some of the old ones 



VOL. I. D 



