SCANDINAVIA 297 



the sport not only of visitors, but of residents and natives as well, 



inasmuch as by that date the weather has generally broken, and the 



birds are unapproachable with doos, whilst most lessees of shootings 



have either left the country, or been obliged to return to their business 



in the towns. A great outcry has been raised in Norway over the 



extraordinary clauses relating to close-time, which, it is said, are 



offered as a sop to the peasant ''free-shooters," whose rights have 



been altogether abolished. It is expected that the law will be partiall)- 



repealed. 



The partridge is plentiful in some parts of Southern Sweden, 



and is found as far north as the province of Jemtland. It has 



also established itself to some extent in Southern 



Partridge. 

 Norway, but in unusually hard winters nearly the 



whole stock perishes for want of food, and several seasons elapse 

 before it agfain becomes in the least deoTee noticeable. 



Although countless thousands of woodcocks breed in Scan- 

 dinavia, the sportsman must not expect to make large bags of 



them ; on the contrary, he must be content if, during 



Woodcock, 

 a long September ramble in the woods, he comes 



across three or four broods. But if he stay in the southern portion 



of the country as late as the end of October, he may have the 



rare good luck to drop upon a flight collected preparatory to 



migration. 



The snipe shooting in some of the Swedish marshes is far superior 



to any to be found in Norway, except perhaps in the 



Snipe. 

 immense tract of bog, morass, and rough meadow lying 



along the coast between Stavanger and Ekersund, and known as 



