BOOK NOTICE. 



27 



bearing shrubs which, dwarfed and creeping, cover the sides and 

 hollows of the hills. 'No one,' says Lord Walsingham, 'who has seen 

 them in their native haunts — be he naturalist or sportsman, or the 

 more happy combination of both — can have failed to be struck by the 

 perfect resemblance of their colour to the objects by which he finds 

 them surrounded. The first time he makes their acquaintance he 

 will probably see them at from ten to fifteen yards distance, where 

 the short jerking motions of their tails will first attract his attention 

 as the birds walk along among the stones, and he will wonder how he 

 could have been so near them without noticing them before.' 



We have ourselves, after marking Ptarmigan down, and being 

 perfectly certain within a few yards of their position, found it most 

 difficult to make them out, even with the aid of a glass, so nearly did 

 their plumage assimilate to the loose shingle and tufts of silver-grey and 

 pale-yellow lichens ; and it was then only by catching sight of the 

 scarlet patch above the eye that we were able to discover the crouch- 

 ing form of the bird. If it were not for this protective colouring. 

 Ptarmigan would never be safe so often as the winged-shadow of the 

 keen-eyed Falcon drifts along the hill. 



The best hills in Scotland for Ptarmigan are in Ross-shire, round 

 Loch Maree, and in the Auchnaehellach Forest ; Sutherland, Caith- 

 ness, and parts of Perthshire also afford good ground on their highest 

 peaks and ridges. Ben Wyvis, in Ross-shire, is a noted Ptarmigan 

 hill ; also the elevated and continuous ridges north of Loch Laggan, 

 in Perthshire. 



In windy weather Ptarmigan sit on the lee side of a hill, and in 

 looking for them the sportsman should endeavour to walk as much 

 as possible at one level, and not up and down. When rising, their 

 flight is at first directly away from the hill, and then parallel with it, 

 following the curves. The sketch at page 43, by Mr. G. E. Lodge, 

 excellently represents the grouping and flight of Ptarmigan when 

 leaving a hillside. 



Black-game, says Lord Charles Kerr, are becoming less numerous 

 than they were some years ago. Amongst the theories advanced to 

 account for this are the abnormally wet seasons in late years, also 

 the deep open drains now made by hill farmers, into which the young 

 birds fall and are drowned. We are inclined to think, also, that the 

 premature slaughtering of the young broods in the early season may 

 have something to do with this. There is a general agreement 

 amongst sportsmen that the 20th of August is too early for Black- 

 game shooting to commence; even in the middle of September we 

 have found them lie like stones, so that the merest tyro cannot fail 

 to kill, and each bird in a brood can be easily obtained. It is 



Jan. 1887. 



