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• , 
J the hawks and owls, a gain ft whofe attacks 
they would otherwife find no flielter. Each 
feather is double, that is, a fhort one under 
a long one, to keep them warm. In the latter 
end of March, they begin again to change 
their plumage, and have get their full fum- 
mer drefs by the end of June. They breed 
every where along the coaff, and have from 
nine to eleven young at a time; making 
their nefts on the ground, generally on dry 
ridges. They are excellent eating, and fo 
plentiful that ten thoufand have been taken 
at Severn, York, and Churchill Forts. The 
method of netting or catching them, is as 
follows : a net made of jack-twine, twenty 
feet fquare, is laced to four long poles, and 
fupported in front with the flicks, in a perpen- 
dicular fituation; a long line is faflened to thefe 
ibpports, one end of it reaching to a place 
where a perfon lies concealed ; fcveral men 
drive the ptarmigans (which are as tame as 
chickens, efpecially on a mild, fnowy day), 
towards the net, which they run to, as loon 
as they fee it. The perfon concealed draws 
the line, by which means the net falls 
down, and catches 50 or 70 ptarmigans at 
once. They are fometimes rather wild, but 
grow better humoured (as Mr. Graham 
fays) by being driven about, for they feldom 
iorfake thofe willows which they have once 
frequented. 
Tetrao. 
