498 PTARMIGAN. 
The Ptarmigan is resident in the Lofoden Islands, and on the 
fells of Scandinavia above the limits of tree-growth, as well as in 
the loftier portions of Finland, the Kola Peninsula, and the Ural 
Mountains. It is found in the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps, 
and in small numbers in Tyrol, Styria, and Carinthia, though no 
longer in Transylvania; while in the Pyrenees it is tolerably abun- 
dant near the snow-line, and it is said to occur in the mountains 
of the Asturias and Leon. In Asia, our Ptarmigan appears to 
inhabit all the high mountains of Siberia down to the Altai and as 
far east as Kamchatka, and a bird (not in summer dress) obtained 
near Yokohama in Japan, at an elevation of more than 9,000 ft. 
has been ascribed to this species. On the lower ground of Northern 
Siberia and Arctic America, as well as in Greenland and Iceland, 
its representative is the browner LZ. rupestris, or some closely-allied 
form ; but the larger Z. hemdleucurus of Spitsbergen’ is more nearly 
related to the Willow-Grouse. 
The nest is a hole scraped in the soil and scantily lined, while 
the 8-10 eggs, laid late in May, have the ground-colour, as a rule, 
rather lighter than in those of the Red Grouse, and are smaller in 
size, measuring about 1°7 by 11 in. In wet or stormy seasons the 
various families associate or ‘pack’ by the beginning of August, but 
otherwise not till winter ; they are scarcer on the extreme summits 
of the mountains than at a lower elevation, and birds shot in the 
highest situations are usually small in size. The food consists of 
the green tops of ling &c., with various kinds of berries. In Scot- 
land the Ptarmigan suffers from disease, like the Red Grouse. 
The male in summer has a red wattle over each eye; lores 
blackish ; head, upper parts, long tail-coverts and flanks dark 
brown, finely mottled and barred with greyish-brown ; tail-feathers 
sooty-black, tipped with white; belly white. Length 14°5 in. ; 
wing 7°75 in. The plumage of the female is orange-tawny, barred 
with black. In both sexes and at all seasons—except for the short 
time that the young are in nesting plumage—the wings are white, 
with dark shafts to the quills. In autumn the male has upper parts 
slate-grey finely vermiculated with black; the female is browner. 
In winter both sexes are white, but the male may be recognised by 
his black lores and eye-stripes ; old females, however, sometimes 
exhibit the latter. More than nine-tenths of the so-called 
‘Ptarmigan’ sent over to our markets are Willow-Grouse in winter 
dress ; these may be known by their larger size, and as regards the 
males—by the absence of any black on the lores. 
