SCANDINAVIA 295 



cannot do better than quote his own words, published elsewhere 

 some years ago.* 



"The bird may well be called the birch-grouse to the exclusion 

 of any other name, for wherever in Central or Northern Norway" 

 —and this applies also to Sweden— " a long stretch of birchwood 

 is seen clothing the slopes of a hill or the levels of a valley, be 

 sure that at least some few coveys of ryper may be found there, 

 unless, indeed, the birds have been exterminated by resident native 

 sportsmen. In genuine pine-forest, altogether unmixed with birch, 

 they are seldom seen. W^here. too, the lower fjeld is covered with 

 patches of birch, dwarfed by situation into scrub, and of the real 

 dwarf-birch {Bctula nana), it is, as a rule, a favourite resort of the 

 ryper. In such localities they also frequent, especially during the 

 heat of the day, the damp thickets of dwarf willow which fill the 

 hollows of the mountain and clothe the sides of the rills, and this 

 habit has given to the bird the name of willow-grouse, by which 

 it is generally known to sportsmen and naturalists. Although the 

 willow-grouse are abundant in Norway, they are scattered over a 

 country which is on a vast scale, and except in certain f^ivourite 

 localities, the shooter must expect to make only small or moderate 



bags from fifteen to twenty-five brace— to be obtained by much 



hard work. On a few of the outer islands below Trondhjem, of 

 which Smolen is the best known, the ground is quite flat and 

 entirely clothed with heather, not a tree being visible, and there 

 the willow-grouse yield excellent sport, similar to that of the Scotch 

 moors. The finest willow-grouse shooting in Norway is in the 



* The introduction to Murray's Handbook to iV^irtw/—" Shooting." 



