THROUGH FINLAND. 
279 
us the moft agreeable fport in (hooting them : it is a diverfion, 
however, but of fhort duration, lading only from the middle of 
May to the middle of June. 
This is a period when a mod furprifing change takes place in 
this country. All nature feems to awake almod at once. That 
folitude, that filence, that lethargy of creation, gives place to uni- 
verfal and unceafmg motion. The birds feem to arrive from all 
quarters of the earth, and people the woods, the fields, the fens 
and marfhes, which re-echo their melody all around. The nights, 
equally fine and clear as the day, enabled us to prolong the plea- 
fures of the chafe. We ufed to dine, have our party at mufic, 
fup, and at ten o’clock in the evening fet out, and continue our 
fports in the fields till about two o’clock in the morning. The 
light of the night was even more friendly to our purfuit than that 
of the day. The folar rays did not make the fame drong impref- 
fion on our eyes, and dill we had light enough for the purpofe of 
(hooting. The birds in the ccurfe of the night were much more 
quiet, the wild ducks flocked from the fea on their way to the 
lakes and rivers, and fometimes paded diredtly over our heads. 
The rivers and lakes, as well as the marfhy ground in their vici¬ 
nity, fvvarmed with ducks and fnipes of all deferiptions. Our 
pleafure as fportfmen was not greater than what we enjoyed as 
naturalids, from the great variety of different fpecies to which the 
inhabitants of Italy are total drangers. 
The chafe of the bird, which Linnaeus calls tetrao urogallus , 
was perfectly new to me. This bird is of the lize of a turkey, 
and 
