CiasI. PTARMIGAN. 
thers incumbent on the tail white, and almoft entire- 
ly cover it. 
The length of thefe birds is near fifteen inches; 
the extent twenty three: the weight nineteen 
ounces. 
Ptarmigans are found in thefe kingdoms only on 
the fummits of the higheft hills of the highlands of 
Scotland and of the Hebrides; and a few ftill inha- 
bit the lofty hills near Ke/wick in Cumberland. 
They live amidft the rocks perching on the grey 
ftones, the general color of the ftrata in thofe ex- 
alted fituations: they are very filly birds, fo tame 
as to bear driving like poultry; and if provoked 
to rife take very fhort flights, taking a {mall circuit 
like pigeons: they tafte fo like a grous as to be 
{carcely diftinguifhed; like the grous they keep in 
{mall packs; but never like thofe birds take fhelter 
in the heath ; but beneath loofe ftones. 
Thefe birds are called by Phny, Lagopi, their 
feet being cloathed with feathers to the claws, as the 
hare’s are with fur: the nails are long, broad and . 
hollow: the firft circumftance guards them from 
the rigor of the winter ; the latter enables them to 
form a lodge under the fnow, where they lie in 
heaps to protect them from the cold: the feet’ of 
the grous are cloathed in the fame manner, but 
thofe of the two firft fpecies here defcribed, which 
perch upon trees, are naked, the legs only being 
feathered, not being in want of fuch a protection. 
In Scotland they inhabit from the hill of Benlo- — 
mona 
273 
