SNOWED-IN. 75 



sive morasses, with which the northern wilderness is 

 studded. During the summer and autumnal months, 

 however, one meets with them on open moorlands, where, 

 indeed, very many breed. 



In summer and early autumn they are found alone or 

 in families ; hut as the season advances they congregate, 

 and during winter, when the snow is deep, may oftentimes 

 be seen in packs of forty to fifty, roaming the country in 

 search of food. 



Unlike the Capercali, which mostly roosts in trees, the 

 Black-Cock almost invariably passes the night on the 

 ground ; and in the winter, more especially if the cold 

 be intense, it not seldom buries itself in the snow. 



Mlsson would seem to impugn the well-known fact, 

 that the Black-Cock, of its own free will and accord, thus 

 embeds itself in the snow ; for he says : " I have at times 

 observed that towards evening this bird has made a hollow 

 in the snow, and lain still there, allowing itself to be 

 covered with the falling flakes. I have often flushed it 

 when lying thus nedsnoud, or snowed-in, so that only the 

 head remained uncovered." 



All this is a mystery to me, for when the Black-Cock 

 is desirous of the shelter afforded by the snow which 

 may be the case not only on the approach of evening, but 

 in the daytime instead of waiting to be " nedsnoad," a 

 somewhat tedious and uncertain process, it makes a 

 regular burrow for itself in the snow, the depth depend- 

 . iug, it is generally believed, on the mildness or severity 

 of the weather. 



That a bird may be accidentally nedsnoad which, 

 sorely against niy inclination, has more than once hap- 

 pened to myself when bivouacking in the forest I can 

 well understand ; but that it should of its own free will, and 

 for the sake of keeping itself warm, undergo the slow and 

 disagreeable operation in question, is more than 1 can 



