I 



1 



r 

 ■i 



L 392 ] 



the hawks and owls, against whose attacks 

 they would otherwise find no shelter. Each 

 feather is double, that is, a short one under 

 a long one, to keep them warm. In the latter 

 end of March, they begin again to change 

 their plumage, and have got their full sum- 

 mer dress by the end of June. They breed 

 every where along the coast, and have from 

 nine to eleven young at a time; making 

 their nests on the ground, generally on dry 

 ridges. They are excellent eating, and so 

 plentiful that ten thousand have been taken 

 at Severn, York, and Churchill Forts. The 

 method of netting or catching them, is as 

 follows: a net made of jack-twine, twenty 

 feet square, is laced to four long poles, and 

 supported in front with the sticks, in a perpen- 

 dicular situation ; a long line is fastened to these 

 supports, one end of it reaching to a place 

 where a person lies concealed ; several men 

 drive the ptarmigans (which are as tame as 

 chickens, especially on a mild, snowy day), 

 towards the net, which they run to, as soon 

 as they see it. The person concealed draws 

 the line, by which means the net falls 

 down, and catches 50 or 70 ptarmigans at 

 once. They are sometimes rather wild, but 

 grow better humoured (as Mr. Graham 

 says) by being driven about, for they seldom 

 forsake those willows which they have once 

 frequented. 



Tetrao. 



( 12 ) 



