PTARMIGAN GROUS. 



often continue forty days *. They are at prefent taken in fnares i 

 but in Lapland were formerly fliot with arrows -f. 



During winter, there is at prefent a very fingular way of taking 

 the Black Grous in Sibiria. In the open forefts of birch, a certain 

 number of poles are placed horizontally on forked flicks : by way 

 of allurement, fmall bundles of corn are placed on them ; and not 

 remote, are fet certain tall bafkets of a conic fhape, with the 

 broadeft part uppermoft : within the mouth is placed a fmall wheel, 

 through which pafTes an axis fixed fo nicely as to admit it to play very 

 ifeadily, and permit one fide or the other, on the leafl touch, to drop 

 down, and again recover its fituation. The Black Grous are foon 

 attrafted by the corn on the horizontal poles ; firfb alight on them, 

 and after a fhort repaft fly to the baflcets, attempt to fettle on their 

 tops, when the wheel drops fideways, and they fall headlong into 

 the trap, which is fometimes found half full. 



D. Ptarmigan, Br. Zool. i. N' 95. 



Tetrao Lagopus. Suea's Snoripa. Lappts Cheruna, Faun, Suec. N' 203. 

 Le Lagopede, De Buffon, ii. 264. tab. ix. 



t^ R. With the head, neqk, back, fcapulars, and fome of the 

 coverts of the wings, marked with narrow lines of black, afh- 

 ' color, and rufb, intermixed with fome white: wings and belly white : 

 outmofl feathers of the tail black ; thofe of the middle cinereous, 

 mottled with black, and tipt with white. The male has a black 

 fpot between the bill and the eye ; which in the female is fcarcely 

 vifible. One which I weighed in Scotland was nineteen ounces. 

 Another weighed by Mr. Ray, in tlie Grifons country, only fourteen. 

 It regularly changes its colors at approach of winter. 



* Jman, Acad. iv. 591. + Olaus Gent. Sepir. lib. xix. c. 13. 



S f 2 Inhabits 



315 



