FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



the feathers, without moulting, in the other. His 

 plumage, as we all know, changes from a brownish 

 black, grey, and white, to a pure white. The 

 ptarmigan is a bird of the rocks, and very few 

 creatures are there to bear him company. The 

 little snow - bunting, that flits from rock to rock 

 and trips nimbly over the scattered stones, has a 

 changing plumage something after the same fashion. 

 The dotterel pipes there in the breeding season, for 

 he has his nesting haunt in high places. Huge 

 mountain masses rise tier above tier, their summits 

 hidden in mists, which suddenly descend and clothe 

 their sides with rolling masses of vapour, so thick 

 that for a time the mountain-hare ceases dotting 

 here and there in search of food and squats motion- 

 less. Sheer precipices with dark sullen tarns below, 

 and jutting platforms of grey rock — such are the 

 haunts of the mountain-grouse. 



His grey-and-white mottled feathering is so very 

 like the rocks and stones, that to human eyes he 

 is practically invisible. The frog-like croak of the 

 ptarmigan tells that they are feeding among the- 

 shattered debris of the rocks ; but unless the flock 



