PTARMIGAN. 363 



its generally inhabiting a higher range of ground. Linnaeus 

 met with both these species when on his Lapland Tour, 

 and under date of July 30th, says, " The little Alpine 

 variety of the Ptarmigan was now accompanied by its 

 young. I caught one of these, upon which the hen ran so 

 close to me, that I could easily have taken her also. She 

 kept continually jumping round and round me ; but I 

 thought it a pity to deprive the tender brood of their 

 mother, neither would my compassion for the mother allow 

 me long to detain her offspring, which I restored to her in 

 safety/' ( Vol. i. p. 291.) The mode of catching the Ptar- 

 migan is thus described, at page 319 : " They take a 

 little forked birch twig, about a span long, which is stuck 

 into the snow perpendicularly by its divided end, forming 

 a sort of arch. A snare, or noose, made of packthread or 

 horsehair, is then fixed to the twig by one end, and placed 

 in the open space between the forks. The thin curling 

 bark of the twig, being carefully slit down at the outer 

 side, curls inward, and serves both to confine and conceal 

 the snare, by drawing it close to the branch on the inner 

 side. Such traps as these are ranged in a line, about a 

 fathom from each other, in the birch thickets, brushwood 

 being laid from one to another, so as to form a low fence. 

 Now as the Ptarmigans come running along, for they sel- 

 dom fly, they have no way to go but through these snares, 

 and forty or fifty of them are frequently caught at a time." 

 Whether this precise mode is still practised, I am unable 

 to state, but I have more than once found the hair-noose 

 round the neck of Norway Ptarmigan in the London mar- 

 ket, and others have done the same. T. M. Grant, Esq. 

 of Edinburgh, who has been in Norway, and has supplied 

 me with many interesting notes, says the Ptarmigan are 

 all taken in snares made of horse-hair, set, be believes, 



