FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 159 



he is as plump as a partridge. The blackcock {Tetrao 

 tetrix) are brought over in large numbers from Russia, 

 Sweden and Norway. 



In Sweden the following birds fit for food are the 

 objects of chase more or less productive: — Large and 

 small cock of the wood {^Tetrao urogallus, and T. tetrix), 

 gelinotte (-Bo»asia betulina),giej partridge {Perdrix cinerea), 

 quail {Coturnix communis), plovers, as the guignard 

 (Oharadrius morindlu's), the ordinary woodcock {Scolopax 

 rusticola), snipes {Gallinago major, G. media and G. gallinula, 

 Totanus ochropus, T. glariola, and T. glottis). These birds 

 are chased with pointer dogs. The curlew {Numsnius 

 arquata), the whimbrel (iV. phceopus, Lin.), which is often 

 passed off to the unwary as a woodcock, and various 

 wild ducks. The flesh of the curlew and whimbrel are 

 alike excellent. 



Hundreds of thousands of the large game birds are 

 consumed yearly in the country, and sent to the southern 

 provinces of Sweden and to England. 



We get an abundance of prairie-hens and canvas-back 

 ducks from the United States. These are frozen by 

 machinery on the other side of the Atlantic, packed in 

 barrels, and brought over in capital condition. In New 

 York one man has been known to receive in a single 

 consignment 20 tons of prairie hens {Tetrao cupido, Cupi- 

 donia cupido) ; allowing two pounds as the weight of each 

 bird (a very fair average), the enormous number of 

 20,000 pinnated grouse would remain, received by one 

 person in a single day. 



Some of the large poultry dealers in the same city 

 will sell in six months 200,000 game-birds ; others 

 150,000, and others again 400 dozen, and so on down- 

 wards through the scale until the final result of all these 

 amounts, if it could be accurately obtained, would make 

 one stand aghast at the incredible numbers which are 

 slaughtered every year.* 



* " Eeport of Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1864," 

 p. 383. 



