IMMENSE PACKS. 151 



make fully as much use of their legs as their wings, and 

 the sportsman may often see them on the snow in long 

 columns, and with rapid strides making their way up the 

 acclivities. On these occasions they will not readily 

 fly up until he is within one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred paces of them, their first endeavour being always 

 to outrun him. 



" Not seldom there may be as many as five hundred 

 individuals in such a pack, which on one's near approach 

 take wing in parties of twenty, forty, to one hundred, 

 letting it be known by their sharp gack! gack! gack! that 

 they are aware of the impending danger, and thereby 

 summoning their comrades to follow. The fowler is 

 seldom enabled to get near these great packs, but he 

 may very often obtain shots at the stragglers that 

 remain behind. 



" So long as the ground continues bare of snow, and 

 the birds retain their summer dress, the packs remain 

 from choice in the places where they first located them- 

 selves; but should the ground continue bare after 

 they have wholly or in part assumed their winter dress, 

 and the fjalls be covered with snow, the packs remove 

 still higher up to the solitary valleys, &c., where, near 

 to the margin of alpine lakes, dwarf birch and willow 

 bushes are still to be found. In such localities the Ripa 

 collect from all the surrounding districts, within the limits 

 of which subseqviently not a single bird is to be seen, so 

 that if a person be unacquainted with their retreats, he 

 might readily come to the conclusion they had one and 

 all deserted the country. 



" Between the 3rd and 10th November, 1850, I was 

 several times in pursuit of one of these immense packs, 

 which, on taking wing after the birds had collected together 

 at nightfall, formed a thick white cloud of several 

 hundred ells in extent, and caused a rushing sound as 



