108 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



keeping himself out of sight he may litter the ground with 

 slain, as the birds are not frightened by the mere sound of 

 the gun a curious weakness of the grouse family. From 

 Norway and Sweden many a box comes to Leadenhall 

 Market, with this advantage, that less demand is made upon 

 the tenants of our own highlands, and thus a plentiful 

 supply is left to add variety to the " mixed bags " which 

 are made before winter comes, and add point and interest 

 to many a long day upon the "birken braes" that would 

 never have been " trudged-out " but for the enthusiasm their 

 pursuit arouses. 



While black grouse killed by the score in these fashions 

 sell at five shillings a brace, the " white grouse " of old 

 writers, or, more familiarly, the ptarmigan, only reaches the 

 modest figure of ninepence or a shilling each bird. But 

 then they are pursued relentlessly. Grreenlanders capture 

 them in nooses hung on a long line, and drawn by two men, 

 who drop the nooses over their necks. They eat them with 

 train oil or lard, and their skins are converted into shirts to 

 wear next the skin. Laplanders take them by forming a 

 hedge with boughs of birch trees, leaving small openings at 

 certain intervals, and hanging over each a snare. The birds 

 are tempted to come and feed on birch tree catkins, and 

 when they pass through the openings are caught by the 

 neck and strangled. As "Bushman" says in "A Summer 

 and Winter in Lapland " : " The Laps select a birch sapling 

 six feet long. It is cleared of twigs, and a horsehair noose 

 fastened a little above the point, which is bent down and 

 lightly stuck in the snow, the noose being about a hands- 

 breadth above the surface. Small hedges are then built up 

 either side, and catkins or fruit stuck on their thorns. When 

 the bird walks up the avenue to get the bait he becomes 

 entangled in the noose, and his struggles free the bent 

 sapling, which then flies up and hoists him out of the way 

 of foxes, wolves, etc." 



On the Hudson's Bay territories also nets twenty feefc 



