BLACKCOCK RISING OUT OF SNOW FIELDS. 323 



initiated however detect a sea-green spot of reflected light 

 in the disturbed snow, and numbers of these birds become 

 an easy prey to the Indians, who when the snow is so soft 

 that the birds can hide in it, need never go supperless to 

 bed." * 



At this season in fact the Indians often catch them 

 thus with their hands, in the midst of apparently barren 

 snow fields, where to all appearance not a living thing 

 exists. 



In a recently published book upon Russia, a gra- 

 phic account is given of an English sportsman who 

 suddenly came upon a regular colony of blackcock, 

 which were thus hid in the snow, while he was trav- 

 elling through the forest, at a time when the snow 

 was deep; when a number of these birds suddenly rose 

 one after another all round him. 



"To my intense surprise (he says) another blackcock rose 

 at my very feet, and flew off; another and another rose within 

 a few yards of me. Blackcock rose from any quarter, right 

 and left, in front and behind, without the slightest warning. 

 One, out of the snow at my very feet, covering my snow 

 shoes with a shower of white spray, as it rose, apparently 

 from the bowels of the earth. Will it be believed that as I 

 stood in one spot, at least thirty blackcocks rose within easy 

 shot, one by one? In five minutes they had all gone, and I 

 was at liberty to examine the holes. I found each was a 

 long narrow passage, from a yard to a couple of yards in 

 length. I afterwards heard that the blackcock in rough 

 weather, when the snow is deep and soft, desert the trees 

 and bushes, and flying in a body, suddenly with one consent, 

 swoop downwards with folded wings, but at full speed, and 

 take a ' header' into the snow each bird thus penetrating to 



* Echoes from the Backwoods of Canada ; Experiences of an Old Settler, 

 by Capt. R. G. A. Levinge, 1849, Vol. i, pp. 126, 127. 



