142 FEEDING AT NIGHT. 



looks black with them ; nevertheless, in those years I 

 never found the berries themselves in the crop of the Ripa, 

 but only the stalks and leaves. After producing fruits in 

 such abundance, the crakeberry plant would seem to 

 require some time for rest, inasmuch as during the 

 succeeding year scarcely a berry is to be seen on it. 

 The E-ipa would therefore be badly off, if its taste only 

 permitted it to feed on the berry and not on the stalk. 

 Another instance of the wise foresight of Nature." 



According to M. Bartli, the Ejiill-Ripa, as with the 

 Dal-Eipa, feeds in the night-time during the winter ; and 

 for that purpose descends the fjalls somewhat, though 

 never so low down as to be within the limits of arborous 

 vegetation.* " When one is abroad of a winter's moi-ning 

 before dawn," he says, " one not unfrequently hears the 

 peculiar burring or murmuring sound made by the Fjall- 

 Ripa on the middle slopes of the fjilll ; but as dayliglit 

 increases, the sound becomes more and more indistinct, 

 owing to their gradu^ally ascending higher and higher ; 

 and when it is full daylight, by which time they have 

 reached the summit of the fjalls, it is no longer audible. 

 From the tracks left by the Fjjill-Ripa after these 

 nocturnal excursions, one sees that they have mostly 

 wandered amongst the birch and willow bushes, just above 

 the limits of arborous vegetation, and the tops of which 

 they have eaten off. But they would not appear to resort 

 to this kind of food excepting when the snow has pre- 

 vented them from obtaining access to the crakeberry." 



The Fjall-Ripa lives in monogamy, but I have an 



* " As an exception it may be mentioned, that in certain localities where 

 the mountains slope gradually down to the sea, and are denuded of grass 

 and trees — for the latter of which the Fiall-Ripa would seem to entertain 

 fear and aversion — these birds may occasionally be seen at dawn only some 

 few hundred feet above the sea-level. It is not, however, common for 

 them to descend thus tar, and later in the day they mostly remove higlier up. 



