184 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



before night, if possible, so that the snow may be still soft 

 and not frozen. He is armed with nothing but a bag of 

 oats or corn and a beer or, better still, champagne bottle. 

 Thus, having nothing of a suspicious nature in his pos- 

 session, he would be allowed to pass, even though searched. 

 Arrived on his ground, he proceeds to make a number of 

 indentations in the snow with his bottle, and the bottom 

 of the cavity, just within reach of the birds, he fills up with 

 grain, and, scattering the rest of the contents of the bag 

 near the holes on the surface, he departs, to return next 

 morning and collect his plunder. 



Unless a frost occurs the trick must necessarily be a 

 failure, but if the cavity becomes properly hardened and 

 the birds find the food, success is almost a certainty. A 

 Grouse or Ptarmigan finding what to them is a great 

 delicacy, immediately imparts the knowledge of its 

 presence to others in the neighbourhood. They at once 

 greedily devour all the grain that is lying around, and 

 then turn their attention to obtaining the stores lying in 

 the holes. Probably by straining their necks to the 

 uttermost they may be able to reach a few grains ; but 

 this only serves to whet their appetites, and they must 

 have more. Consequently they go on reaching till they 

 eventually topple over into the hole, which just comfort- 

 ably corresponds to their own size, and in which the more 

 they struggle to extricate themselves the more firmly do 

 they become wedged. When a bird is forced into a hole, 

 even should the sides be smooth, it is not easily with- 

 drawn, as the feathers resist being pulled backwards ; 

 but when the sides are rouo-h the retention is doublv 



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great, and the feeble stragglings of the unfortunate bird 



