CHAPTER IV. 



On the Swedish Field Sports and Fishing, which will equally apply to Norway, 

 save as regards the Localities. 



ALTHOUGH no country in Europe can be better adapted by 

 nature, for the habits of nearly every species of wild game, 

 bird, and animal, (and the following list of Scandinavian game 

 will prove to the reader that Sweden is as rich, if not richer 

 than most other European countries in this respect), I can 

 safely say that I have never yet shot in any country, where I 

 have found so much difficulty in making a really heavy bag 

 of game as in Sweden, save just in the very wilds of Lapland. 

 And bad as the sporting now is generally throughout the 

 country, and especially in the populated districts, it is every 

 year becoming worse, owing to the laxity of the game laws 

 and the destruction of the forests. This may be accounted 

 for in many ways, especially as regards the feathered 

 game. 



In the first place, the severity of the weather and the 

 lateness of the springs in the midland and northern districts, 

 very frequently entirely destroy the early clutches of eggs, 

 and if the second clutches are hatched off, the young birds 

 are always small and very backward, and the chicks are 

 easily shot off, by the pot-hunting sportsman, when the 

 early season comes in. 



Secondly, the whole country is overrun with vermin. 

 Foxes, martens, weasels, stoats, and thousands of eagles, 

 falcons, hawks, owls, ravens, and crows, wage a continual 

 war throughout the whole year on the birds or eggs. 



Thirdly, the game laws, as they now stand, are very badly 

 framed, and worse observed. The season for shooting every 



