180 
WILD NORWAY. 
W. had also found four old capers, which rose, just out 
of shot, from a patch of rush on the open fell. The 
next day we rested, preparatory to opening a month’s 
campaign with the elk on the morrow. 
The best grouse-shooting I have had in Norway has 
been on open moorlands above timber-level—say two 
thousand feet, where the fjeld is patched with clumps of 
birch-scrub about six foot high, with low heather 
between. Here the grouse can generally be marked in ; 
or, otherwise, in such scattered and defined covert, they 
are easier to find again, when two guns, with three or 
four beaters, “ half-mooning ” and surrounding each 
birch-clump in turn, and taking the birds as they come 
out beyond, will soon demoralize and dominate the 
wildest grouse. On such fjelds a few blue hares vary 
the bag, as well as a chance woodcock and a couple or 
two of snipe. 
From the above extracts it will be apparent that 
the Dal-rype is a game-bird of the first-class. He 
is, indeed, a true grouse, identical with our own, save 
for a few unimportant climatic variations. The northern 
latitude, with its more severe winters, drive him from 
the fells to the sheltering birch-woods below, and impel 
him to don snow-white quills and breast, with a winter 
garb of white ; but, otherwise, in all essential points 
of plumage, voice, and habits, the two forms are alike— 
as regards voice, though the notes are the same, that 
of the willow-grouse is pitched in a distinctly higher 
key. 
Probably our friends, the Norwegians, know their 
own business best, and it would be unwise for an out¬ 
sider to question their arrangements. Still, it does 
