86 TETRAONIDE. 



It is reported that the male Ptarmigan behaves very 

 remarkably during the time when the female sits on her eggs, 

 and that under these circumstances he will sit immovable in 

 one spot for hours together, even on the approach of danger ; 

 and when stationed thus near the nest, it has been known to 

 remain there, looking around on the landscape quite uncon- 

 cerned, while persons have thrown stones at it. As soon 

 as the young are hatched, both parents become alert and 

 busy, and towards autumn more careful, and finally very shy 

 in the winter. If the weather is fine and sunny in winter, 

 they are all again slow to move, at which time the sportsman 

 gets a chance of approaching near enough to shoot them : 

 the bright light of a fine day may perhaps dim their 

 sight. 



During the breeding season the Ptarmigans live in pairs, 

 and afterwards with their family; and later in the year, about 

 October, they congregate in large flocks, and thus migrate. 



About the call-note of the Ptarmigan so much has been 

 recorded, that it is very difficult to decide which account to 

 give credit to, but it appears most reasonable to believe that 

 the usual call resembles that of the common domesticated 

 hen. 



The Ptarmigan can be kept in confinement, but hardly 

 for any length of time. 



The Ptarmigan feeds on the natural produce of the un- 

 cultivated rocky mountains and moors it inhabits, namely, 

 the buds, leaves, blossoms, berries, and seeds of plants 

 and stunted shrubs, as those of the bilberry (Vaccinium 

 myrtillus), cranberry (V. oxycoccus), black crake-berry 

 (Empetrum nigrum), the heaths (Erica vulgaris, E. ceerulea, 

 &c), the dwarf birch (Betula nana), and many other moun- 

 tain plants that grow from among the fissures of rocks. In 

 these apparently scantily supplied regions, the Ptarmigan finds 

 a sufficiency of food amonq- the clefts and fissures while the 



