habits of the willow ptarmigan, as observed by Dr. Richardson in the fur countries of America, are almost precisely the same as those which the writer has collected from several Norwegian friends, by whom, during the last winter, he was supplied with ptarmigans ad libitum, and in whose houses he has seen packages of these birds in a frozen state, heaped up in piles on the floor-presents from Norway. We may here state that in flavour, and the peculiar bitterness of the backbone, these birds could not, when dressed, be distinguished from moor-game, being, in our opinion, far superior to the small Scottish or Alpine ptarmigan.

During the winter of 1854-5, the quantity of ptarmigans sent to the London markets from Norway and Sweden, but principally, as we were informed, from Norway, was unprecedented. Packages of these birds, in a frozen state, came in by shiploads, and so the influx continued till spring had actually commenced. All our attempts to obtain anything like an approximation to the numbers of brace imported were futile. The utmost that we learned from our friends was, that the birds, noosed and trapped in vast multitudes by the peasants, or occasionally shot by a single ball, were sold to parties who contracted for all which were thus obtained, and regularly collected them for the purpose of export. We were further told that neither these birds, nor the black grouse, nor the capercaillie, were habitually eaten by the peasantry by whom they were killed, and this partly from dislike; although in the towns, and especially in Christiana, they constantly appeared upon the table, dressed in a sort of cream sauce.

The nooses by which these birds are caught are made either of horsehair or fine packthread, and are fixed to sticks stuck into the snow, in a long line, about a fathom from each other, in the birch thickets-brushwood being laid from one to the other, so as to form a low fence. Along this fence, as affording a screen or shelter, the ptarmigans run on being alarmed, and forty or fifty

are caught at a time. Mr. Yarrell says:-"I have frequently found the horsehair noose round the neck of the Norway ptarmigan in the London market, and others have done the same." According to Mr. Lloyd, one peasant will set from five hundred to a thousand of these snares, and a single dealer will sometimes purchase and dispose of fifty thousand ptarmigan in the course of the season. Sir Arthur Capell Brooke calculated that in one large parish in Lapland sixty thousand birds were killed one winter. Mr. Yarrell, quoting from notes supplied to him by J. M. Grant, Esq., of Edinburgh, writes as follows:-" Mr. Grant says, 'I was assured, when in Norway, that the number of ptarmigan killed in that country every winter was beyond belief; two thousand dozen was, if I remember rightly, exported from Drammen in one ship for England last year-and great numbers are annually sent to the Copenhagen market. Besides those received in this country from Drammen, great quantities are received in London during the months of February, March, April, and May, from Bergen, Drontheim, and other ports on the west coast of Norway, whence conveyance is obtained for them in the boats which bring constant supplies of lobsters to the London market. On one occasion, late in the spring of 1839, one party shipped 6,000 ptarmigan for London, 2,000 for Hull, and 2,000 for Liverpool. At the end of February, or very early in March, in 1840, one salesman in Leadenhall Market received 15,000 ptarmigan which had been consigned to him; and during the same week another salesman received 700 capercaillies and 560 black grouse.' The prices of these birds in the Drammen market, as supplied me by Mr. Grant, in English money, are, for a

teen pounds in weight, while that of the female seldom exceeds five or six pounds.

The flesh of the capercaillie is in high esteem, and vast numbers of these birds are imported, principally from Norway, but also from Sweden, during the winter, into the London market, together with black grouse and snowy ptarmigans. They are mostly caught in traps and snares, but some are shot with a single ball. When frozen, they will keep in good condition for a very long period. The flesh of the female is much superior to that of the adult male. Both the capercaillie and the black grouse breed in confinement in an aviary, under judicious management; and in Sweden broods are often thus reared. In Scotland, and also in England (at Knowsley) broods of capercaillie have been thus obtained from the eggs, with a view to replenish the pine-woods with this magnificent game; but what degree of success has attended the attempt we cannot positively ascertain. In Sweden the capercaillie is often kept in a half-domestic state, and becomes not only as tame as a common fowl, but displays great boldness and pugnacity of disposition. We may here observe that hybrids, or mules between the capercaillie and the black grouse, are not unfrequent both in Norway and Sweden.

BALÆNICEPS REX.

BY THE AUTHOR OF CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL HISTORY.' Ir the reader will look at a map of Africa, he will see that the Nile is represented as flowing from sources which until very lately remained a problem to the geographer. Captains Speke and Grant have at length solved the mystery. The geographical difficulty, however, used to be more or less got over by the map draughtsman,