BLACKGAME 205 



sport over dog's ; for, although they lie close during the 

 day, and seldom offer difficult shots, yet they need a deal 

 of hunting, and a bag of six or eight brace of full-grown 

 handsome young blackcocks, varied, perhaps, by a brace or 

 two of fell-partridge, and an odd grouse picked up on the 

 fringe of the heather, are proofs of sound knowledge of 

 one's ground, some fieldcraft, and good dog's. 



Their next stage is to assemble into packs about the 

 end of September. These packs, from a dozen to fifty or 

 one hundred strong, cocks and hens together, may, at this 

 season, be readily detected, being always, whether resting - 

 or feeding", in the open : since now they disdain conceal- 

 ment. You may see them a quarter-of-a-mile away, on 

 the fringe of the heather, on the bent-grass prairie, or 

 perched in troops on the straggling- thorn-hedges which 

 fringe the moor. Should there be cornland within a few 

 miles, these packs will make descents at daybreak and 

 dusk upon the stubble ; and then spend the day among 

 the distant hills, by some straggling birch or pinewood 

 with rough undergrowth of saugh, bog-myrtle, and fern, 

 or in the cleugh of some tortuous hill-burn. Such birds 

 as these are watchful and wild, and can now be only 

 handled comprehensively on a wildfowling basis. The 

 young blackcocks cannot now be distinguished on the 

 wing from the old, and carry finer "tails." 



Old blackcocks, at the beginning of the season, that is 

 August 20th (it may seem needless to say this, would it 

 were so), are in full moult and have not the slightest 

 vestige of a tail ; that is to say, the short blood-feathers 

 of the nascent rectrices are entirely hidden between the 

 upper and under coverts which meet beyond them. At 

 that period they lie close, skulking in beds of the heaviest 

 brackens, ashamed of their ragged condition, and during 



