THE PTARMIGAN. 
But have ye clomb tlie Alpine height 
*Mid rock and snow-drift, seeking 
The Ptarmigan with plumage white, 
That crouches, hidden from the sight, 
Where scarce a sound by day or night 
Upon the ear is breaking ? 
We must now leave the pine-woods of Strathmuir and 
the bonny birken sliaws of Blair Athol and Dunkeld, to 
climb high up amid the realms of barren rock and ever- 
lasting anDW. There we shall find The Ptarmigan, 
Sitting in his home sublime, 
High o'er cloudland's boundless sea. 
This is the Lagopus Vulgaris of Flemming and some na- 
turalists, the Tetrao Lagopus of others. Selbj and Gould call 
it L. MutuSj from the remarkable change which takes place 
in the colour of the plumage, in accordance with the vari- 
ation of the seasons. *In summer,' as Mr. Knox tells us in 
his admirable book on ^ Game Birds and Wild Fowl,' 
* it presents a mixture of black, yellow, white, and grey, 
exactly resembling the colour of the mossy, lichen-covered 
rocks and stones where it lies concealed, and which, be- 
coming gradually whiter as the season advances, at last 
nearly assimilates itself to the snows of winter.' Thus the 
bird is often enabled to elude the piu'suit of its natural 
