. Game birds and shooting-sketches : illustrating the habits, modes of capture, stages of plumage and the hybirds & varieties which occur amongst them . thebirds inhabit, there are not more than two or three placesin Scotland where driving is attempted or can be made atall successful—Gaick Forest is the best that I have heardof In 1886 as many as twenty-seven brace were killedthere in a sins^le drive. Ptarmioan in flioht travel atmuch the same rate as Grouse, but their powers of ascend-ing a stiff incline are very much greater; this they willdo with as much apparent ease as if they were going-
. Game birds and shooting-sketches : illustrating the habits, modes of capture, stages of plumage and the hybirds & varieties which occur amongst them . thebirds inhabit, there are not more than two or three placesin Scotland where driving is attempted or can be made atall successful—Gaick Forest is the best that I have heardof In 1886 as many as twenty-seven brace were killedthere in a sins^le drive. Ptarmioan in flioht travel atmuch the same rate as Grouse, but their powers of ascend-ing a stiff incline are very much greater; this they willdo with as much apparent ease as if they were going-straight ahead, and in passing over chasms and abyssesthey often take sudden headers almost straight down-hill,if they have made up their minds to strike for some23articular spot or to avoid guns ahead. PTARMIGAX 175 The infinite variety of the plumage of the Ptarmiganhas ever been a suhject of much discussion and commentamonost British ornitholoo-ists, but in reulitv it is not avery difficult question to settle, the only time duringwhich it is at all confusing being towards the end ofJuly. At that time manv of the birds are well into their /T. ^ ->ti<i -<■:.■ MODE OF TRAPPING PTARMIGAN. autumn moult, others having not commenced the castingof their summer feathers. During the last two years Ihave made the plumage of the Grouse and Ptarmigan aspecial study, and have found the changes of the two birdsto be identical; but as the colours of the Ptarmigan aremore striking to the eye they are consequently supposedto be more varied, whereas, in reality, they are not nearlyso complicated as those of the Grouse. The reason for 176 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES this is tliat Ptarmigan do not have the same three formsthat the Grouse have. This is noticeable in the Grousecocks by tlie red, the bkick, and the white, and in thehens by the spotted, the yellow, the red, and the blacktypes. Now if the Ptarmigan had all these it wouldindeed be almost impossible to lay down any
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecthunting, bookyear1894
