322 THE RED GROUSE. 



the surrounding objects were as firm and well defined 

 in the aqueous reflection, as in the terrestrial reality ; 

 the ground was everywhere glittering with the snares 

 of the little field-spiders, and thousands of them were 

 navigating the atmosphere in their silken balloons. 

 The night continued serene till we had retired to rest, 

 and we thought not of the fear of the farmer. About 

 midnight, however, the wind sung in those melancholy 

 murmurs which are always the signs of some rapid 

 change for the worse in the state of the atmosphere ; 

 and in the morning, the ground was white with snow 

 to such a depth, that it concealed both the standing 

 corn and the shocks. It lay for some time, and was 

 followed by heavy rain and black frost, which com- 

 pletely destroyed the potatoe crop, and reduced the 

 poor, who depended principally upon that, to a state 

 closely bordering upon famine. 



When the grouse leave their upland haunts, and even 

 in these, in some instances, especially if there be rocks 

 or woods at no great distance, one of their destroyers is 



