GROUSE. 107 



Then there are the blackgame the russet hens and 

 young cocks on the game- dealer's hooks being, perhaps, 

 often mistaken by the careless for Scotch grouse, but the 

 male bird is steel-blue, and white under- plum age is distinct, 

 and not easily confounded with the lesser sorts. 



It is from over the sea that our poulterers' shops obtain 

 replenishments of blackgame. Podolia, Lithuania, Courland, 

 Esthland, Yolhynia and Ukraine, are all forest countries, 

 and here indiscriminate shooting and snaring go on. During 

 the winter season, in Siberia, they are taken abundantly in 

 those elaborate set-traps which the traveller must have 

 noticed along the sides of the roads between villages. A 

 certain number of poles are laid horizontally on forked sticks 

 in the open forests of birch ; small bunches of corn are fixed 

 to them by way of lure; and at a short distance off tall 

 baskets of a conical figure placed with the broadest part 

 uppermost; just within the mouth of the basket is set a 

 small wheel, through which passes an axis so nicely fixed 

 as to admit it to play very readily, and on the least touch to 

 drop down and again recover its position. The birds are 

 soon attracted by the corn on the horizontal poles, and after 

 alighting upon them and feeding, they fly to the baskets and 

 attempt to settle on their tops, when the wheel drops side- 

 ways and they fall headlong into the interior. 



Every one should read those fascinating volumes of 

 adventure in which Lloyd recounts his experiences amongst 

 the Northern pine forests. His pictures of snow-covered 

 trees, with a black-cock on every branch, eating the tender 

 resinous shoots said to give their flesh a peculiar flavour at 

 times, are enough to make the shooter envious indeed. The 

 Russian peasants build huts full of loopholes, like forts, 

 where the sawyers have been at work in the forests, or 

 where an open glade presents an opportunity ; and decoy 

 birds mere artificial imitations made of black cloth are 

 arranged around. As the grouse assemble the shooter fires 

 through the openings, and if the sportsman succeed in 



