RUTTED GROUSE; PARTRIDGE 101 



monly where their bodies had first struck the snow 

 and furrowed it for a foot or two, and six inches wide, 

 then entered and gone underneath two feet and rested 

 at the further end, where the manure is left. Is it not 

 likely that they remain quite under the snow there, 

 and do not put their heads out till ready to start ? In 

 many places they walked along before they went under 

 the snow. They do not go under deep, and the gallery 

 they make is mostly filled up behind them, leaving only 

 a thin crust above. Then invariably, just beyond this 

 resting-place, you could see the marks made by their 

 wings when they took their departure : 



•'lllf if 



These distinct impressions made by their wings, in the 

 pure snow, so common on all hands, though the bird 

 that made it is gone and there is no trace beyond, 

 affect me like some mystic Oriental symbol, — the 

 winged globe or what-not, — as if made by a spirit. In 

 some places you would see a furrow and hollow in the 

 snow where there was no track for rods around, as if a 

 large snowball or a cannon-ball had struck it, where ap- 

 parently the birds had not paused in their flight. It is 

 evidently a regular thing with them thus to lodge in the 

 snow. Their tracks, when perfectly distinct, are seen to 



