Duck-shooting in Wermland, Sweden. 69 



end of September they leave the reeds, and large flocks assemble by 

 day in the wide open water, but returning every night to the swamps 

 to feed. It is now almost impossible to approach them without a 

 punt-gun, and even this would hardly be safe in our wide waters. 

 Towards the middle of the month the golden-eye come down, and 

 the common wild duck begin to travel coastwise. A few golden- 

 eyes remain in the open water during the winter, but no wild duck. 

 The weather now begins to get chilly and inclement, the duck- 

 shooting season in Sweden may be considered at an end, and with 

 it the shooting season in all the midland districts, except an odd shot 

 at a hare or other forest game. I never could make out which way 

 the scoters, scaup, or geese come down from Lapland. It must be 

 along the coast, for they certainly do not pass through the midland 

 districts, and the same remarks will apply to the principal part of 

 the waders. 



I have only seen one double snipe this year, and that I could not 

 kill. I do not know what is the cause, but the double snipe seem 

 to be gradually disappearing in this country. When I first came 

 into Wermland I killed seventeen double snipe in one afternoon in 

 a rough, dry tussock meadow at the top of this very swamp. This 

 was, however, a very exceptional case. The double snipe comes 

 down to us the earliest of all the snipes, and leaves the soonest. I 

 generally expect to find the first about the middle of August, and 

 never kill one after the third week in September. The common 

 snipe begin to draw down early in September, the jack towards the 

 end of the month, although you may flush a few jacks up to the 

 middle, even up to the end of October. The cream of the snipe- 

 shooting here ends by the middle of October. 



Take it altogether, I consider with us the past has been an excel- 

 lent season for all forest game, especially capercailie -, and although 

 I never do much this way, I have killed more this year than ever I 

 did before. My new retriever is an excellent bitch for the forest, 

 where a pointer would be little use, and where a close-hunting, 

 well-broken dog is the very thing, for it is wonderful how close 

 both the capercailie and black grouse lie in the cranberry and 



