"Ptarmigan" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... suited to conceal an animal through one part of the year, would become highly conspicuous during another part of it—namely, when the ground is covered with snow. Accordingly, in these cases the animals change their colour in the winter months to a snowy white: witness stoats, mountain hares, ptarmigan, &c. ...
— Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) • George John Romanes
... groats for dinner, as an experiment. But after Lewis had eaten a ptarmigan, he regretted that he could not eat as much of the groats as he would have liked, in order to show her that he was really very fond of groats. He liked groats very much indeed—milk did not agree with him after his attack of ague. He couldn't take milk, but groats he would like ...
— Married • August Strindberg
... given are familiar to us all. But there are few better illustrations of this curious fact than that afforded by the Ptarmigan, a bird which is found in the northern parts of Europe and America, including the north of Scotland. It is a game bird, nearly related to the grouse, the partridge, and even to our domestic fowls, and it is protected, like the other game birds, by Acts of Parliament, which render those who shoot ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various
... short of game those days, but shot all I cared to—a hare, a grouse, a ptarmigan—and when I happened to be down near the shore and came within range of some seabird or other, I shot it too. It was a pleasant time; the days grew longer and the air clearer; I packed up things for a couple of days and set off up into the hills, up to the mountain peaks. I met reindeer Lapps, ...
— Pan • Knut Hamsun
... pounce down upon him off-hand; while, conversely, the fox himself, if red or brown, could never creep upon the unwary hare without previous detection, which would defeat his purpose. For this reason, the ptarmigan and the willow grouse become as white in winter as the vast snow-fields under which they burrow; the ermine changes his dusky summer coat for the expensive wintry suit beloved of British Themis; the snow-bunting acquires his milk-white plumage; and even the weasel assimilates ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen
... this it was lovely to be out in the fresh air and the sunshine. When Katherine heard the long, laughing chuckle of the ptarmigan, or saw the trailing flights of geese headed northward, she could have shouted and sung from sheer lighthearted joy at the coming of spring. But, however high her spirits rose as the weather grew better and finer, ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant
... "Ptarmigan, Handscombe," said the captain, as the white and browny-grey plumage of the unfortunate bird came floating down from where the ...
— Steve Young • George Manville Fenn
... November eighth: Some ptarmigan were brought in today, which are the first birds of the kind I have seen, and they are beautiful. They look like snow-white doves, only larger, with silky feathers and lovely wings. They are soon to be cooked, for they are ...
— A Woman who went to Alaska • May Kellogg Sullivan |
