PTARMIGAN. 361 



very silly birds, so tame as to bear driving like poultry, 

 and if provoked to rise, take very short flights. The only 

 preservative, says a sporting friend to the late Rev. Mr. 

 Daniel, that nature seems to have afforded them, is their 

 alighting upon stones so exactly of their own colour, as to 

 render it difficult for the eye to discern them. This 

 sportsman killed forty-three Ptarmigan in one day above 

 Loch Laggan, which lies between Dalwinnie and Fort 

 Augustus in this district ; but as the season advances, and 

 the ground becomes wet and cold, they are much more 

 difficult to approach. Mr. Macgillivray also observes, that 

 " these beautiful birds while feeding run and walk among 

 the weather-beaten and lichen-crested fragments of rock, 

 from which it is very difficult to distinguish them when 

 they remain motionless, as they invariably do should a 

 person be in sight. Indeed, unless you are directed to a 

 particular spot by their strange low croaking cry, you may 

 pass through a flock of Ptarmigans without observing a 

 single individual, although some of them may not be ten 

 yards distant. When squatted, however, they utter no 

 sound, their object being to conceal themselves ; and if you 

 discover the one from which the cry has proceeded, you 

 generally find him on the top of a stone, ready to spring off 

 the moment you show an indication of hostility. If you 

 throw a stone at him, he rises, utters his call, and is imme- 

 diately joined by all the individuals around, which, to your 

 surprise, if it be your first rencontre, you see spring up one 

 by one from the bare ground. They generally fly off in a 

 loose body, with a direct and moderately rapid flight, re- 

 sembling, but lighter than that of the Red Grouse, and 

 settle on a distant part of the mountain, or betake them- 

 selves to one of the neighbouring summits, perhaps more 

 than a mile distant. In winter several families of Ptarmi- 



