CHAPTER VI. 



Shooting Black-Cock at the Pairing-Ground — With a Pointer — Witli a 

 Fogel-Hiuid. — Capture by Nets. — Artificial Decoy Birds. — Stalking 

 on Foot— In a Sledge.— Ti-aps and Snares.— The Orre-Tratt.— The 

 Orre-Benne. 



''r^HE Black-Cock is a favourite disli at the tables of the 

 -*- upper classes in Scandinavia, and the consumption of 

 these birds is therefore great. About the year 1760 it was 

 calculated, on pretty sure data, that from sixty to eighty 

 thousand annually found their way to the Stockholm 

 market, and that at least two hundred thousand more 

 were consumed elsewhere in Sweden. If the consumption 

 AA^as so considerable in those days, what must it be at 

 present, when wealth and luxury have so increased ? 



Tliis bird being so highly prized, various expedients 

 are adopted to obtain it. Very manj^ are shot, and a 

 large portion at the " lek-stalle," or pairing-ground, 

 spoken of in the last chapter. This, as said, is iisually 

 situated on a morass, or other opening in the forest, or 

 it may be on " the surface of a frozen lake ; and here 

 the fowler constructs for liimself a SItjiit-lwjo — literally 



