364 TETRAONID^E. 



amongst the twigs of a skreen of bushes, erected above the 

 surface of the snow. Mr. Lloyd says, one peasant will set 

 from five hundred to a thousand of these snares. This is 

 done in the winter season ; the birds are kept in a frozen 

 state until the arrival of the dealers who make it a trade 

 to purchase up game : a single dealer will sometimes pur- 

 chase and dispose of fifty thousand Ptarmigan in the course 

 of the season. Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke calculated 

 that, in one large parish in Lapland, sixty thousand birds 

 were killed in one winter. Mr. Grant says, I was assured, 

 when in Norway, that the number of Ptarmigan killed in 

 that country every winter, was beyond belief: two thou- 

 sand dozen was, if I remember right, the quantity exported 

 from Drammen in one ship for England last year ; and 

 great numbers are annually sent to the Copenhagen mar- 

 ket. Besides those received in this country from Dram- 

 men, great quantities are also received in London during 

 the months of February, March, April, and May, from 

 Bergen, Drontheim, and other portions of the west coast of 

 Norway, from whence conveyance is obtained for them in 

 the boats which bring constant supplies of lobsters to the 

 London market. On one occasion, late in the spring of 

 1839, one party shipped six thousand Ptarmigan for Lon- 

 don ; two thousand for Hull ; and two thousand for Liver- 

 pool ; and at the end of February, or very early in March, 

 of the present year, 1840, one salesman in Leadenhall 

 Market received fifteen thousand Ptarmigan that had been 

 consigned to him ; and during the same week another 

 salesman received seven hundred Capercaillies, and five 

 hundred and sixty Black Grouse. The prices of these 

 birds in the market of Drammen, as supplied me by Mr. 

 Grant, are in English money for 



