MODE OF CAPTURE. 183 



to find it. We read, for instance, that, " on a Sunday 

 morning in the autumn of 1863, a youth residing in the 

 parish of Mjolby, in Ostergotland one of the more mid- 

 land Swedish provinces went out with his gun for the 

 lawful purpose of shooting crows or the like. Whilst 

 crossing a rye stubble, lie saw a large bird fly up from the 

 ground and make directly towards him ; and when it came 

 sufficiently near, he fired, and had the good fortune to 

 break one of its wings. Being no longer able to fly, the 

 bird took to its heels, followed by the jagare, who, during 

 the chase, contrived to reload his gun, and at the second 

 shot broke its other pinion, and was then readily enabled 

 to secure his prize. Neither himself nor his friends, 

 however, had the least idea what bird it was; some 

 supposing it to be a Capercali, and others a Crane. But 

 an educated person in the vicinity sent its portrait to 

 Professor Sundevall (of world-wide reputation as a 

 naturalist) at Stockholm, who at once pronounced it to 

 be a female Bustard. It weighed ten pounds and a half." 

 The methods adopted in Scandinavia for capturing the 

 Great Bustard are various. From its extremely shy nature, 

 and from always keeping to the open country, it is not easy 

 of approach. Of wayfaring people, however, it seems to have 

 little apprehension ; and the common method, therefore, 

 is for the sportsman to clothe himself like a peasant or to 

 put on female apparel, and, with a basket on his back and 

 holding the gun close by his side, to make up to it. At 

 other times he approaches it under cover of a skjut-hast, or 

 shooting-horse, either real or artificial. Should there be 

 several sportsmen, however, the usual plan is to make an 

 extended ring around the bird, which, gradually closing 

 in from all sides, so bewilders it that it is either shot 

 where it stands or whilst endeavouring by flight to evade 

 its pursuers. Occasionally, also, the birds are chased with 

 greyhounds, which are conveyed towards them in covered 



