Ptarmigan in Winter, 1873
Watercolour
In this winter scene, the birds barely survive in the snowy waste they inhabit. Darwin had observed in On the Origin of Species that, in arctic or desert conditions, 'the struggle for life is almost exclusively with the elements.' In spring, however, as Darwin noted in The Descent of Man (1871), ptarmigan were especially vulnerable to attack by birds of prey, as their remaining white winter plumage made them conspicuous.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London