56 



PTARMIGAN. (SUMMER). 

 Case 74. 



Although it may possibly be regarded as 

 improper to exhibit a game bird shot during the 

 breeding season, I hope that my attempt to show 

 the Ptarmigan in its nesting plumage, and so 

 illustrate the three seasons of summer, autumn and 

 winter, will be considered sufficient excuse for such 

 an unsportsmanlike performance. 



It is only among the mists near the summits of 

 the highest hills that its nest is to be found. Here 

 without a neighbour save the Dotterel, Snow 

 Bunting, or Blue Hare, it passes the summer till 

 driven by the storms to seek shelter from the winter 

 blasts in the more sheltered corries at a lower 

 elevation. 



It would soon become more numerous were it 

 not for the tribute it is forced to pay to the 

 mountain Fox and Raven. 



The eggs of this bird are by no means easily 

 discovered. Though frequently searched for, I 

 never had the luck to meet with a nest except by 

 accident. At last, after many unsuccessful attempts, 

 three nests were discovered within a few hundred 

 yards of one another on the hills above Glenlyon, 

 in the north-west of Perthshire. 



I had so many times gone over the ground 

 within eight or ten miles of the Lodge without 

 success that I at length determined to search the 

 land belonging to some adjoining shootings over 

 which I had the liberty to hunt for any specimens 

 I might require. 



Starting before daybreak, accompanied by one 

 keeper and a gillie leading a pony with provisions 

 and plaids in case we did not get back that night, 

 I had by mid-day gone over several of the rough 

 hills that lay between Loch Rannoch and the Lyon ; 

 and after about ten hours' work without having 

 started a single female, as heavy thunder was 



