96 IN A SLEDGE. 



groves, bordering on the cultivated country, where tliey 

 find abundance of their favourite food. 



" Of a cold and clear winter's morning, when the trees, 

 from the hoar frost, seem to be even thicker than when 

 covered with leaves," says M. Wilhelm von Wright, 

 whose description is true to the life, and to whom I am 

 indebted for the accompanying very beautiful illustration, 

 " a large ' pack ' of Black-Cock, perched on the trees, the 

 whole of them in motion, and their attitudes varying, is a 

 most beautiful sight, and one that gives life and animation 

 to the otherwise desolate face of nature. At tlie very 

 slightest movement of the birds, the rime falls from the 

 boughs, and the rays of the sun seem to the eye like so 

 many minute silver spangles." 



The difficulty of finding a "pack" of Black-Cock in 

 the winter time is not usually very great, their haunts 

 being for the most part known to the peasantry and 

 others, and as, when pursued or shot at, their flight is com- 

 monly short; the neai'est of the "pack," indeed, seldom 

 flying farther than to the most distant. And this con- 

 tinues the whole day, unless some untoward circumstance, 

 such as the sudden appearance of the Black-Cock's mortal 

 enemy, the goshawk, in which case they all instantly 

 take wing and move oft" elsewhere. 



The better plan of " stalking " the Black-Cock in 

 winter would seem to be with a horse and sledo-e. 

 But this can only be accomplished when there is com- 

 paratively little snow on the ground, for when it lies 

 deep, as is usually the case as the season advances, the 

 woods are not traversable for man or beast until the feet 

 be provided with implements of some kind or other. 



" The sledge used for the purpose," M. Wilhelm von 

 Wright tells us, " should be provided with broad runners, 

 to prevent it sinking deep in the snow, and wiViifJdltrar— 

 or uprights between the runners and the bodv of the 



