194 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



not range too wide, or a well-broken Sussex spaniel, well 

 under command, might answer in shooting these' forests. 

 The willow grouse generally frequents pretty open places in 

 the forests, especially near water where there are bushes, 

 and I noticed that all the Lap forests which I saw, were much 

 more open than those in Wermland ; and a man has a 

 much better chance of a flying shot than with us, for if he does 

 chance to tramp up a bird from the ground in our woods, it 

 is out of sight before he can get up his gun. There is no 

 telling what quantity of willow grouse a man could bag in an 

 August day in some of these Lap forests. Unlike all the 

 other forest game, the willow grouse never perches on a tree 

 and when sprung soon drops again. 



The Partridge. I have seen as good partridge ground in 

 the south of Sweden, (barring the turnips) as ever I saw in 

 England, and I am certain in some places a man could make 

 as heavy a bag as in Norfolk ; but in the south, most of the 

 gentlemen shoot themselves, and since the deep snow in 

 1860-61, we have had no shooting worth speaking of in 

 "Wermland, which we may, in a sporting point of view, say, is 

 the northern limit of the partridge in Sweden, although 

 before 1860, a good many used to be found around Fahlun. 

 With us they thrive very well, and if I had an estate here I 

 would soon have them back again, for I would buy up a lot of 

 birds from Scania in the autumn, where they net them, keep 

 them under cover through the winter, and turn them out in 

 the spring ; and if there were a deep snow in the winter, I 

 would net all the covies I could, (and this could be easily 

 done, for at this time they come right up to the dwellings), 

 keep them through the winter, and turn them out again in the 

 spring. It is strange no landed proprietor does this. They are 

 all complaining of the scarcity of game, and yet few will go 

 to any expense or trouble in preserving it, and consequently 

 in this land, which, by nature, is better adapted for most 

 kinds of game than any I know, a man has the greatest diffi- 

 culty in making a heavy bag.. I dare say, however, that the 

 severity of the winters, and the abundance of foxes and birds 

 of prey, tend to keep them down a good deal ; but how 



