season is unpropitious, generally owing to heavy, continuous rains, chilly winds, or to violent storms, which sweep over large districts, destroying not only multitudes of newly-hatched birds, but even many adults. On the average, however, the annual equalization of the breed is maintained, especially in the Highlands of Scotland; but in North Wales, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and perhaps throughout the border countries generally, grouse are less numerous than formerly, partly owing to the encroachments of cultivation on the moorlands, and partly to the facility for visiting the northern moors which is now afforded sportsmen by the railroad.

MORE ABOUT GROUSE AND MOOR-GAME.

FROM the red grouse, or moor-game, we pass to the common or Scottish ptarmigan (Tetrao lagopus, Penn.; Lagopus mutus, Selby). The ptarmigan is much smaller in size than the red grouse, and its plumage becomes white in winter. This species is very extensively distributed. With regard to the British Islands, it is only found in the central and northern districts of Scotland, in the Hebrides, and in the Orkneys, but neither in Cumberland, North Wales, nor Ireland. It haunts the bleak rocky summits of the higher mountain ridges, feeding on alpine berries, seeds, the tender shoots of heather, and of other high mountain plants, and seldom or never descends into the lower territories of the red grouse. On the Continent, it is found throughout all the great mountain ranges, even as far south as Italy, and the bold rocky district of Aragon in Spain. It is abundant throughout the vast elevated districts of Norway and Sweden, tenanting the Fjelds, or Fyalls, and is undoubtedly the Fyall-ripa, or Lagopus Alpinus of the Swedish naturalist Nilsson. Its range thence extends throughout the

whole of Russia, and is continued over a great portion of the high northern and arctic regions of America. By the parties employed on the various northern expeditions which have been sent out from this country, says Yarrell, these birds were found at Greenland, on the west side of Baffin's Bay, in the country south of Barrow's Straits, on the east of Prince Regent's Inlet, on Melville Peninsula, and at Port Bowen; and one pair were seen on the east side of the peninsula of Boothia, while three or four more were seen at Felix harbour. It is also an inhabitant of the northern part of North America.

The common ptarmigan, unlike the red grouse, is by no means shy or wild, so that the sportsman who submits to the toil of the difficult ascent among crags and precipices may closely approach it without exciting alarm. So unwary indeed is it, that, according to Mr. Selby, the shepherds frequently knock it down with a stick. Pennant also notices the unsuspicious nature of these birds, which may be driven like poultry, and when at last urged to rise, will only take flight to a short distance.

During the breeding season, which commences early in spring, the ptarmigans are scattered in pairs over the mountain range; the female makes no nest, but deposits her eggs, varying from eight to fifteen in number, amongst rough stones; and the brood continue associated until the following spring, often conjoining with other broods so as to form "packs." During the winter, when the mountains are covered with snow, the ptarmigans burrow beneath it, not only securing thereby for themselves a snug asylum, but also the means of obtaining subsistence; for, making their "subsnow" runs along the surface of the earth, they open thereby a feeding ground, which affords them the fruit and tender shoots of cranberries, cloudberries, and other alpine plants.

It is only in August and the early part of autumn, that the sportsman in the Scottish Highlands can contend with the difficulties to

be encountered in ptarmigan shooting; and even then, the coveys, as they lie concealed amongst grey or many-tinted stones and lichen-covered fragments, or out-cropping masses and shelves of rock, to which the colour of their plumage assimilates, are not readily to be discerned, except by a practised eye. Their habits at this season are thus graphically described by Mr. Macgillivray :"These beautiful birds, while feeding, run and walk amongst the weather-beaten and lichen-crested fragments of rock, from which it is very difficult to distinguish them when they remain motionless, as they invariably do should a person be in sight. Indeed, unless you are directed to a particular spot by their strange low-croaking intonations, you may pass through a flock of ptarmigans without observing a single individual, although some of them may not be ten yards distant. When squatted, however, they utter no sound, their object being to conceal themselves; and if you discover the one from whom the cry has proceeded, you generally find him on the top of a stone, ready to spring off the moment you show an indication of hostility. If you throw a stone at him, he rises, utters his call, and is immediately joined by all the individuals around, which, to your surprise, if it be your first rencontre, you see spring up one by one from the bare ground. They generally fly off in a loose body, with a direct and moderately rapid flight, resembling, but lighter than, that of the red grouse, and settle on a distant part of the mountain, or betake themselves to one of the neighbouring summits, perhaps more than a mile distant.”

It is not often that ptarmigans killed in Scotland are to be seen in the London markets; and when they do occur, they are (as far at least as our personal observations extend) in a transition state of plumage between that of summer and that of winter, the pure white being interrupted and diversely variegated with patches of speckled and barred grey.

One of the most remarkable facts connected with the history of

the ptarmigan is, its change in colour from a spotted and streaked livery, which distinguishes it in summer, to one of snowy whiteness in winter. In spring, for example, the plumage is varied, on the upper and under surface of the body, with black, deep reddish yellow, brown, and grey, the male being much darker than the female; the quill feathers are white with black shafts, and the naked skin above the eye is bright vermillion. As autumn advances, the yellow gives place to greyish white; the black spots and bars become irregularly broken; patches of white now begin to be conspicuous, and these increase till the general plumage acquires the purity of the mountain snow. With this whiteness it also increases in fullness; the beak is buried almost to the tip in soft feathers, and the hair-like feathers with which the legs and toes are covered in summer, are now exchanged for a covering so thick and full, as to conceal even the tips of the claws, and give to the limbs a similarity to the hind legs of the hare, justifying the propriety of the term Lagopus, or hare-foot. As the plumage in autumn gradually changes from its mottled style to white, so in spring the change from white to the summer livery is also gradual.

We learn from Selby, that the ptarmigan has been reared in confinement without much difficulty, and has been known to breed in a tame state. With respect to the word ptarmigan, Mr. Yarrell rightly states that it is nothing more than a modification in letters, rather than pronunciation, of the Gaelic tarmachan, the name of the bird in the Scottish Highlands.

We now turn to the willow or subalpine ptarmigan; the dal-ripa of the Swedes (Tetrao albus, Linnæus; Lagopus albus, Bonaparte; Lagopus saliceti, Swainson, Gould, and authors generally; Lagopus subalpinus, Nilsson).

It is this species of ptarmigan which in winter crowds the markets and poulterers' shops of the metropolis. It has no black streak from the beak surrounding the eye, but the shafts of the

greater quill feathers and the outer tail feathers are black, the rest of the winter plumage being snowy white.

The willow ptarmigan, or dale grouse, like our moor-game, tenants a lower elevation than the previous species, the little Alpine ptarmigan, as it was called by Linnæus, who was well acquainted with both species. In size and general aspect it closely agrees with our moor-game; but our moor-game, even in the north of Scotland, never becomes white in winter. Granting, then, with naturalists in general, its specific distinctness, it may be stated that the willow ptarmigan is not a native of the British Islands. In Norway, Sweden, and throughout northern Europe generally, it is extremely abundant, as well as in the fur countries of North America, between the 50th and 70th parallels of latitude, where, according to Dr. Richardson, it breeds in the valleys of the rocky mountains, on the barren grounds, and along the arctic coast. In winter, according to the same authority, these ptarmigans collect in flocks, and shelter themselves in thickets of willow and dwarf birches on the banks of marshes and lakes, the tops and buds of the shrubs constituting the principal part of their food at that season. Bare sandy spots are their favourite resorts in the daytime; but they pass the night in holes in the snow. The spring change of plumage begins first in the male, the transmutation of colours commencing on the head and neck, so that the contrast between this part and the yet white body is not a little singular. The female does not fairly moult till the early part of June; the delay being admirably suited to her habits, and well calculated to ensure her safety, as well as that of her eggs and young brood, from numerous enemies. The male puts on his coloured plumage as soon as the rocks and eminences most exposed to the sun become bare; and at this time he is accustomed to stand on a large stone, and call in a loud croaking voice to the females that hide themselves in their white dress among the unmelted snow on the more level ground. The