408 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



appearance, which, however, is far from conclusive against it, 

 since not merely association of ideas, in rivalry, but the season 

 itself, without their presence, would be sufficient to produce 

 them. 



In the evening I questioned the forester, through the inter - 

 pretership of Herr Hoglind, in regard to certain statements 

 which I had dimly understood him to make, as to certain winter 

 habits of the Blackcocks here — to wit, their burrowing in the 

 snow and eating their own excrements. From finding so many 

 little collections of these in the forest — the whole country is 

 either lake or forest, with open spaces of rock, moor, or peat-hag 

 — I had surmised that it was the habit of the birds to void them 

 in one spot, either coming to it singly, or at different times, or 

 else collectively, for, from such heaps being frequently found in 

 the open, they could not be accounted for as having fallen from 

 their roosting-trees. Jacobsen, however, says that such collec- 

 tions are made by one and the same bird that has burrowed down 

 in the snow and remained there for several days, or even weeks, 

 if I understood him correctly — or say a week or ten days — 

 eating their excrements many times over. He says that hard 

 weather and scarcity of food oblige them to do this, and that it 

 is their regular habit. Asked if several birds might not burrow 

 in the snow together, like this, and the number of excrements 

 be thus accounted for, and if they did not go together in winter, 

 he said that they did go together, but that each one would make 

 its own hole in the snow, so that there would be one here and 

 another there, close together perhaps, but not united — a sort 

 of Blackcock warren in the snow, it would seem. It seems to me 

 possible, however, that though each bird makes its own separate 

 hole in the snow, which indeed one would expect, yet that several 

 may come together under it and stay thus for the sake of 

 warmth. Yet even thus they would occupy some space, and it 

 would, in fact, be impossible for such compact heaps as I have 

 found to be produced by more than one bird, unless they had a 

 special habit of voiding their excrements in one particular spot 

 — and this seems highly improbable. I do not, however, see 

 how the fact of the birds eating their excrements, as a means of 

 nourishment, is made out, since Jacobsen did not profess to have 

 actually seen them do so, which would have been difficult under 



