BLACKGAME 95 



at all numerous, by working them up from the deep 

 heather and bracken with a couple of spaniels, or a steady 

 old retriever well broken against runnino- in and taught to 



o o o 



hunt close. Whether it is that they do not observe the 

 approach of the sportsman wdien lying so much below the 

 ground -level, or that they adopt squatting as a means of 

 concealment, without having placed a sentry as they 

 generally do, one cannot very well judge ; but one is 

 almost startled by the sudden manner in which a Black- 

 cock can rise from beneath one's feet without beino: noticed 

 on the white carpet around. Another and another immed- 

 iately follow his example, and after you have discharged 

 your two barrels with effect or otherwise, it makes you 

 interested to examine the spot from whence they have 

 sprung. But you will find nothing to reward you but a 

 slight depression in the snow, and no indication to show 

 that they have been burrowing underneath it, as some 

 foreign naturalists affirm they do. Perhaps the snow is 

 neither of sufficient depth nor of long enough duration to 

 warrant the birds doing so in this country. I have seen 

 Partridges in a snowstorm lying huddled close together 

 behind a bush, allowing the snow to drift over them till 

 only their heads were visible. 



Numbers are annually killed at the stooks in autumn, 

 and few Highland sportsmen have not sat behind their 

 hastily devised barricade of sheaves to wait the coming of 

 the birds in the early morning or evening — generally the 

 latter time, as one does not much care to bestir himself 

 before 7 a.m. when he has had a hard time of it on the 

 previous day. It is most exciting sport whilst the birds are 

 coming, and in manv a northern shootino- it is about the 



