MOSQUITOES A DEADLY PEST. 135 



their protection, and foster tliem with the same affection 

 as their own. One, therefore, not unfrequently meets 

 Avith a pair of Dal-llijja accompanied by some thirty 

 young ones. Hence one may sometimes go on sliooting 

 as many as fifteen out of a pack, consisting originally 

 of about twenty, without sensibly diminishing their 

 numbers ; for as the old ones are usually the first killed, 

 the young ones then ' call ' to themselves birds of another 

 brood, which settle down contentedly with them and 

 never again return to their old locality." 



Besides man, the Dal-Ripa has many enemies, not the 

 least formidable of which is the mosquito. " When the 

 young are small," says Laestadius, " the mother shelters 

 them under her wing during the night. She does the 

 same to protect them from the mosquitoes. My father 

 told me that one summer, when those insects Avere 

 unusually numerous, he came upon a E,ipa thus cir- 

 cumstanced. She had nine chicks under her wings and 

 three others lay dead by her side, her wings not extend- 

 ing wide enough to cover them. During severe mos- 

 quito summers," the rev. ^-entleman proceeds, "the foi'est 

 birds suffer greatly from these pests, and one then marks 

 a sensible diminution in their numbers." 



The Dal-Ripa, though not looked on as an especial 

 dainty in Scandinavia, is nevertheless considered superior 

 to the Fjall-Ripa. According to M. Falk, its flesh in the 

 winter tastes of the willow, the tops of which then con- 

 stitute its chief subsistence. If the bird were properly 

 cooked, however — which is seldom the case in Sweden, 

 where game as well as meat is usually either burnt to a 

 cinder or boiled to rags — it would probably be found little 

 inferior to our grouse ; that is, if dressed prior to having 

 been frozen, in Avhich state most northern birds reach 

 England ; for afterwards its fine flavour is, for the most 

 part, gone. 



