The Ptarmigan. '3 



the colour of their plumage harmonizes, being dark in summer and white in the 

 winter, that a sportsman may walk through a covey without being aware that 

 there are any birds in his neighbourhood. 



After the nesting season they collect in packs, and visit lower localities than 

 they frequent in summer. Barth says, that in Sweden, at that season, " they not 

 unfrequently visit the sea coast, and, being white, are very conspicuous ; they 

 appear quite bewildered, and easy to approach within gunshot, whereas v/hen the 

 ground is covered with snow they are shy, and take wing before one has arrived 

 within anything like gun-shot range. They fly tolerably swiftly, in a loose irregular 

 body, their mode of flight resembling that of the Red Grouse, and when once on 

 the wing will generally fly some distance before settling. Their call-note is a 

 harsh croak, not unlike the cry of a frog, and it is frequently uttered as an alarm 

 call." The food of the present species consists chiefly of the tender twigs and 

 leaves of the common cranberry, (Empetruvt nigrumj ; but Macgillivray says that 

 the crops of specimens he examined also contained a large quantity of fresh green 

 twigs of the common heath or ling, fCalluna vulgaris), and whortleberry, (Vacciniuin 

 myiiillusj, the largest fragments not exceeding five-twelfths of an inch in length. 

 Leaves and twigs of the cow-berry, (Vaccinium viiis-idceaj, and dwarf- willow, fSalix 

 herbaceaj , seeds of various rushes and sedges, and other plants, with berries in 

 autumn, also form part of their food, which is in fact, for the most part, the same 

 as that of the Red Grouse. "The Grey Ptarmigan is a bird which, feeding 

 on vegetable substances containing comparatively little nourishment, introduces a 

 large quantity at a time, like a ruminating quadruped, and gradually digests it 

 while reposing. In feeding it walks about among the shrubs and herbage, where 

 it is little liable to be interrupted, so that it has time to select fragments of the 

 proper size and quality." 



Dresser states that the Ptarmigan breeds at great altitudes in the mountains, 

 its nest being a mere depression in the soil, generally under shelter of a stone or 

 low bush, and sparingly lined with grass-bents or thin twigs ; and the eggs closely 

 resemble those of the Red Grouse — so much so, that I can give no character by 

 which they can always be distinguished. As a rule, however, the marking are a 

 trifle larger and bolder. So soon as the young are hatched they are able to run, 

 and at the least appearance of danger hide with great celerity, and it is almost 

 impossible to find them. 



The present species is not by any means so suitable for the table as the Red 

 Grouse ; but large numbers are sent to our markets, especially during the winter 

 season, when they come over from Scandinavia with Willow-Grouse. In Scotland 

 the common Ptarmigan is by no means free from that scourge of the moors, the 



