HAZEL GKOUSE-PTAHMiaAlSr WILLOW GROUSE. 193 



with a covey of black grouse on one of the islands in the 

 Wener when duck-shooting, in August and September, and 

 had some very nice sport. 



The Hazel Grouse. This, to my fancy, the finest of all 

 our forest game for the table, is never met with in the south 

 of Sweden, but from the south of Wermland far up into 

 Lapland, it is common in all the thick woods, especially 

 such as have stony rises in them. They are never seen 

 in the open, but occasionally in the thin woods of birch 

 and fir mixed, which skirt the deeper forests ; their prin- 

 cipal home is deep old rocky fir forests. I see the Acclima- 

 tization Society are desirous of introducing this bird into 

 England, but in my opinion it would never thrive in any 

 English forests which I have seen, (and of the Scotch forests 

 I know nothing) . Small belts of fir would not certainly, 

 however, suit the habits of the hazel grouse. .Moreover, 

 there is no bird so difficult to rear in confinement. They 

 are never seen in a tree until they have been frightened up 

 from the ground, and the only plan by which I have ever 

 shot them has been to hunt them up with one of the before- 

 mentioned hounds, and shoot them at perch, for they never 

 fly far. Their call is a soft whistle, and, with a little metal 

 pipe, no bird is more easily called to the shooter. 



The Ptarmigan is only met with on the snow fells, and I 

 suppose no further south than the Dovre fell. From the little 

 experience I had up in Lapland, I should say ptarmigan shoot- 

 ing, with a brace of high ranging setters, on these fells, must 

 be the finest kind of shooting, and it brings a man among 

 scenery which he never forgets. I am certain on some of 

 the Lap fells, a man might kill twenty-five or thirty brace in 

 a day with ease. 



The Willow Grouse comes much further south, even into 

 North Wermland, and it is certainly the commonest of all 

 game in the forests at the foot, and on the sides of the 

 fells, right up into Lapland ; but they never wander far, and 

 the sportsman will not find them in any of the forests, which 

 lie at a distance from the true fells. A good setter, with 

 a bell, would be the dog for this work, but he should 



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