36 GALLING 



attempt to get out of the range of the shot. Instances are 

 mentioned of ptarmigans having bred in confinement ; but 

 they are certainly not, by their habits, adapted for the pur- 

 poses of domestication ; and the birds are best studied in 

 those lofty regions of which they are a very peculiar and 

 very characteristic ornament. 



Though the summits of the Grampians (the eastern part 

 of the great central ridge especially) be the principal places 

 of the British Islands where ptarmigan are met with, there 

 are a few, and but a very few, on the highest mountains of 

 the north of England and of Wales ; but they are hardly 

 numerous enough in any place to render the shooting of 

 them a regular field-sport. It has been mentioned, that for 

 table they are inferior to the red grous, but that applies to 

 birds which have wintered in the mountains, and borne the 

 severe cold, and subsisted on the scanty food of that season. 

 The young, if taken in the autumn of the same year, are 

 very delicious. 



A single specimen of another ptarmigan (Tetrao rupestris 

 of authors), which was killed in Perthshire, is now in the 

 collection of Lord Stanley.* 



RED GROUS, OR MOOR-FOWL (LagOpUS ScotlCUs). 



The red grous is a little larger than the ptarmigan, though 

 the difference, except in the length of the wings, is incon- 

 siderable. Many of the habits are also the same in both 

 birds ; but the grous is always found farther down the hill 

 than the ptarmigan. The bill also is shorter, and less 

 pointed ; and there is a white circle round the eyes, and a 

 white spot at the base of the lower mandible. The scarlet 

 spot above the eye is fringed along its upper side. The 

 general colours of the feathers are red, different shades of 

 brown, and black ; and the quills of the wings and external 

 * This species is a native of northern and central Europe. M. 



