PTARMIGAN.
t h e fulling snow, burrows a chillv bed in it, wherein he lies or
plumes himself, runs gaily over its crystal surface, or, perched on
t h e tallest rock, turns his stainless breast towards the drift, and
challenges its whiteness with his own. The driving sleet he willingly
welcomes, heedless of the cold; it would seem as if his winter dress,
put on together with the snowy mantle that wraps the form of the
e a r t h around him, gave h im a similar protection from the frost, and
when the summer comes again, he too changes his garb, and once
more is in uniform with the grey rocks, the companions whom he
loves and never leaves.
I t is said, also, that they will b u r r ow into t h e loose snow, to hide
themselves from birds of prey, and make their way beneath it to a
considerable distance.
I f a person comes in sight, they remain motionless, and often lie
v e r y close till they are approached within a few y a r d s ; otherwise
some sentinel, perched on the top of a stone, gives the alarm and flies
away, followed by the rest of t h e flock, who rise up all around. They
g a t h e r into large Hocks even by the end of J u l y , and separate again
a n d pair early in the s p r i n g ; then the pairs, and in due time their
broods, almost the sole occupants of the mountain tops, blend the
g r e y colours of their plumage with those of the moss-covered rocks,
to which nature has well and wisely adapted them. At this season
t h e y arc tame, and only r u n away before an i n t r u d e r , u t t e r i n g their
low wild cry. ' I n this way they will often reach the opposite edge
of the rock, and will, as it were, drop off; but the expectation of
finding them on some lower ledge will be disappointed, for they have
p e r h a p s , b y that time sought lor and reached the opposite side of
the mountain, by a low wheeling flight, as noiseless as the solitudes
by which they arc s u r r o u n d e d . ' Like so many other b i r d s , these too
flutter off in well-stimulated disablement to draw away attention from
t h e i r young. The latter, as soon as able to fly, seem instinctivelyaware
of the1 protection afforded to them by the resemblance of their
plumage to the g r e y lichen-covered rocks and stones, a n d will lie motionless,
like stones, in another sense also of the word, almost close to
your feet, in verv bright weather they avoid the glare of the sun
on the snow, and seek (he shady side of the mountain.
P t a r m i g a n are good eating, and therefore in request for the table.
T h e y acquire a somewhat hitter taste. ' I n the year 18o9, one dealer
alone shipped six thousand for London, two thousand for H u l l , and
two thousand for Liverpool; and early in March, 1840, a salesman
i n Leadenhall market received fifteen thousand Ptarmigan that had
been consigned to him. Sir A. De Capell Brooke calculated that sixty
t h o u s a n d had been killed d u r i n g one winter in Lapland; and Mr.
Lloyd says that a dealer in Norway will dispose of fifty thousand in
a season.' It is from these countries that such prodigious numbers
come, and they are all taken in horse-hair nooses. The Ptarmigan is
a bird easily kept in confinement, and has been known to breed in
the"tame state.
Their flight is low, straight, and moderately rapid, and causes a
whirring noise; they do not ordinarily fly far, and when alighting
run on a little way. In walking about, the back is rounded up and
the tail drooped, but if observant of supposed danger, the attitude
becomes attentive. They can run very fast if necessary, and do so if
alarmed, dipping into the air over some eminence, and so d i s a p p e a r i n g.
At night they roost either under a stone or tuft, er else in the snow,
scooping out a hollow in which they almost completely b u r y themselves,
and indeed it sometimes proves their grave, in which they are
snowed up, though they can remain, it is said, for a week, till a
thaw or some increased exertion on their own part releases them.
They feed on the b u d s , berries, leaves, blossoms, and seeds of various
plants and shrubs—t h e heath, the cranberry, the cloudberry, the bilberry,
the crowberry, the dwarf birch, and others, and walk about
among them to select such as are most to their liking, and also
swallow small fragments of stone and sand to aid the t r i t u r i t i o n of
their loud. Snow scorns to supply their drink, for they go in search
of it in the summer months. The young are at first fed with insects.
Their call or note is a wild, harsh, hoarse, g r a t i n g croak, which
harmonizes well with the desolate scenes which the presence of the
bird almost alone enlivens. It is sometimes low, and sometimes more
loud is heard at a great distance in the thin air of the exalted regions
which furnish these Grouse with a dwelling-place. It i., occasionally
prolonged for some length of time, and is uttered at times when
the bird is flying, as well as when he is settled.
The Ptarmigan pairs early in the spring, and the eggs arc begun
to be laid in J u n e , and to be sat upon by the beginning of July,
incubation lasting three weeks. The hen alone brings up the brood,
and has been known to do so even when the male had been taken,
and so alsu if one of the young had been picked up, to go close to
the person taking it, as if to demand it back again: she gathers them
under her wings in cold and stormy weather.
The nest, if any be formed, for sometimes the bare earth is laid
upon, is composed of a small portion of heather or grass, placed in
some slight hollow under a rock, stone, or plant, and is very difficult
to be detected, ' f o r / says Sir William J a r d i u e , ' t h e female, on perceiving
a person approach, generally leaves it, and is only discovered
VOL. IV. jj