166 On the Occurrence of some of the Barer Species of Birds 



circumventing some crafty old cock, who has wandered far from his 

 original domain, and knows full well how to use all the wits witli 

 which Nature has so liberally endowed him. I shall never forget 

 the pleasure that such an occurrence gave me personally, when, in 

 the dead of winter, I was Snipe shooting in our water meadows. It 

 was on a keen cold day, the herbage affording but scant shelter for 

 any bird, when coming suddenlyto the edge of one of our "carriages " 

 (as the watercourses are called which " carry " the water into the 

 meadows from the main stream) , I surprised two fine old ring-necks 

 at their afternoon draught ; and which, separating in grand circles 

 to the right and left, returned to their mother earth, in a quicker 

 way than either of them had intended ; though I am bound to say 

 I missed a third cock bird directly after, from making too sure of 

 my prize, after my former unexpected luck. 



The craft of an old cock Pheasant is really something surprising ; 

 and if you are unaware of his dodges, he will surely outwit you, 

 generally making such use of his legs that you find him yards from 

 the spot where you confidently expected to discover him ; or at other 

 times flattening himself against the ground in stubble or fallow, so 

 that you literally walk over him, although from a little distance off 

 you may have satisfied yourself that you have marked to an inch 

 where he is. No ! long may Phasianus Colchicus and his allies, the 

 Ring-necked and other varieties, find a home in our preserves and 

 hedgerows, or at times be found paying an unexpected visit to our 

 farmyards and gardens — as, for example, on the Sunday before last, 

 when a fine old cock stalked out of my front gates, seeming to depend 

 on the security the Sunday gave him, and perhaps knowing that he 

 would have been safe in my domain even on a week-day. 



Tetraonid-e. 

 Tetrao Urogallus. " The Capercaillie.'' Although I cannot by any 

 ingenuity include this magnificent bird as even an occasional strag- 

 gler into our neighbourhood (though I see the Rev. A. C. Smith 

 mentions an instance as having occurred in the parish of Winter- 

 slow in 1841, which must have been a veritable straggler indeed), 

 yet I cannot help referring to it from an amusing incident that this 



