328 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



change from the autumn dress to the white winter 

 plumage is a moult, these young ptarmigan appear 

 to moult three times in less than four months. 



The exact measurements of the Swedish ptar- 

 migan, taken carefully from fresh-killed specimens, 

 in Swedish measure (a mere trifle shorter than 

 the English) are these : — Male, 14 to 14^ in. long ; 

 20 in. breadth of wing ; f in. beak from forehead ; 

 8in. wing from carpus ; 4| in. tail ; 1| in. tarsus ; 

 IS in. middle toe ; female half an inch shorter, and 

 the other measurements proportionately smaller. 



The ptarmigan may truly be said to be a child 

 of snow, for you never meet with them off the 

 real fells, although I have occasionally flushed 

 them from the fell sides, just where the willow 

 bushes end. Their real home is the higher fell 

 tract, and in the middle of summer on their very 

 highest snow-clad summits. In the spring they 

 come down to the lower fells to breed, but you 

 never find them there in the end of summer. The 

 pairing season here appeared to begin early in 

 May, and lasted a fortnight or three weeks, and 

 during this time the hoarse laughing love-call of 

 the old male might be heard at very earliest dawn 

 on any of the fell tops. This is soon answered 

 by the finer "i-i — ack — i-i — ack " of the female, 

 and the love chase commences. This is the time 

 when many are shot off, for they are now too en- 



