76 
UP AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 
enemies, as well as of man. The generic term Lagopus^ 
applied to this and the Eed Grouse, comes from the Greek, 
and signifies * hare-foot,' these two species having their feet 
entirely covered with a thick, short plumage, like fur. This 
the Black Grouse and Capercalzie have not, their feathers 
only extending to the first joint of the tarsi. This obvious 
distinction has caused Macgillivray to place the brown and 
grey Ptarmigans, as the two species are often called, in a 
genus by themselves. The term Ptarmigan, we may ob- 
serve, is but a slight modification of the Gaelic name Tar- 
machan. The snow-covered peaks and bare rocks, far 
above the heathery region inhabited by its near relative, 
the Red Grouse, are the principal haunts of this bird ; and 
he must be an ardent and a hardy sportsman who endures 
the toils and overcomes the difficulties of penetrating those 
Alpine solitudes, where scarcely another living creature is 
to be seen, except the mighty eagle, whose scream alone 
breaks the awful silence, or the grey hare, whose furry 
mantle undergoes a seasonable change of colour analogous 
to that of the plumage of the bird. Such, then, is the 
Ptarmigan, once, as Pennant asserts, a dweller amid the 
hills of Cumberland and Westmorland, and some other 
parts of England, but now not to be found at all south of 
the Grampians. The further north you go among the 
Highlands, the more plentiful does it become. It does not 
exist in Ireland ; and, although once known in Wales, has 
not been seen there for at least half a century. It inhabits 
most Alpine regions of both the European and American 
continents, feeding on the tops of such plants as are to be 
found in those wild and desolate situations, and probably 
also on insects. As a table- bird, it is much inferior to the 
moorfowl, like w^hich it is monogamous, and, to a certain 
extent, gregarious. ^ The packs,' as Morris tells us, in the 
work to which we have several times referred, * break 
lip early in the spring, when pairing takes place ; and the 
couples distribute themselves in situations suitable for their 
purpose.' 
Macgillivray describes the cry of the bird as similar to 
the croak of a frog ; others have compared it to the harsh 
note of the missel thrush. The hen makes a very rude kind 
