COMMON PTARMIGAN 
leave the nest soon after they are hatched, and are assiduously cared 
for by both parents. 
General habits . — ^The tameness and boldness of ptarmigan during the 
breeding -season are perhaps more marked than in any other species of 
British game-bird. If suddenly disturbed with quite young chicks, the 
female, not content with going through the usual performance of feigning 
a broken wing and shuffling along over the ground while the young are 
scattering and hiding themselves among the short herbage and stones, 
will sometimes actually come at the intruder. On one occasion an irate 
mother actually ran between the writer’s feet, striking at his boots with 
her wings, while the cock remained perched on a rock a few yards off, 
uttering every few minutes his deep croaking cry, er — aar, which is more 
like the hoarse bleating of a sheep than anything else. The young, even in 
their earliest stages, are extraordinarily active, and can run at a great 
pace. They are great adepts at hiding, and when they crouch flat on the 
ground, even in open spots, are extremely difficult to detect, so closely 
does their downy plumage match their surroundings. 
Mr Millais says that if the hen bird is flushed singly, and the young, even 
if fully grown, do not follow at once, she sometimes flies straight away 
for about 200 yards and then suddenly shoots up into the air for twenty or 
thirty feet, at the same time calling loudly ack-ack-ack^ or ee-ack^ to attract 
attention. 
Soon after the young are hatched the male is said by some writers to 
leave them to the care of their mother and take himself off to join other 
bachelor friends on the highest tops of the mountains. Later in August, 
when the young can fly strongly, and have been taken to the higher ground 
by their mother, he rejoins his brood. This, however, is contrary to our 
experience of ptarmigan in Scotland, the male being always somewhere 
in the vicinity of his young, and most solicitous as to their welfare. Both 
parents remain with their brood until the late autumn snows, when they 
join with other coveys, and sometimes form large packs, if the weather 
is wet and stormy. At such times they become extremely wild, and will 
rise far out of shot; but in flne weather they are extraordinarily tame, 
and, as already stated, always prefer to squat on the approach of danger, 
trusting to the marvellously protective colour of their plumage to escape 
observation. It is wonderful how difficult it is for the sharpest eyes to 
pick them out among the stones and rocks, even when one knows they are 
close at hand. The first actual intimation of their presence is often the 
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