148 MIGUATIOKS PROM THE FJALLS. 



But the case is very different on the advent of winter, 

 when the several families pack ; for they are then no 

 longer approachahle. 



M. Bai'th, wlien describing his experiences in the 

 Lofoden islands, where he M'ould appear to have spent 

 more than one year, mentions some peculiarities of the 

 Fjall-Ripa which may be worth transcribing. 



" Provided there be no snow on the ground," he says,' 

 " the best time to shoot these birds is from the commence- 

 ment of October, for their white winter dress is so unlike 

 that of the naked rocks that one is enabled to discern 

 them from a great distance ; and though their colour is 

 then in such striking contrast to all surrounding objects, 

 I have always found them very tame. No sooner, how- 

 ever, does snow fall, and the fjalls are clothed in white 

 like themselves, than they all at once become so exceed- 

 ingly wary that from thenceforward, and until the packs 

 separate in the spring, I never succeeded in getting within 

 gun-shot of even a single bird." 



" But when, as happens during certain winters," he 

 proceeds to say, " the Tjall-Ripa fall down in great packs 

 from the mountains to the sea-coast, and settle closely 

 together on the naked rocks, amongst dwarf bvishes, or 

 it may be on the bare ground, the case is widely different ; 

 for they are then so tame that many will not take wing 

 even when their comrades are killed in the very midst 

 of them, and those that do fly up generally settle again 

 within gunshot of the spot from whence they were 

 flushed. At such times one may commonly kill from 

 tlu'ce to four at a shot, and a couple of fowlers, supplied 

 with a sufficiency of ammunition, as many as three 

 hundred in one day. They would seem to be altogether 

 bewildered at finding themselves in a locality so strange, 

 and where they are unable to see as freely around them 

 as from their own alpine haunts. 



