i8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



which they love to make excursions ; and in particular, in the dry 

 summers of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, they swarmed to 

 such a degree that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty 

 and sometimes thirty brace in a day. 





PARTRIDGES 



But there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now 

 extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much before 

 shooting flying became so common, and that was the heath-cock, 

 black-game, or grouse. When I was a little boy I recollect one 

 coming now and then to my father's table. The last pack remem- 

 bered was killed about thirty-five years ago ; and within these ten 

 years one solitary greyhen was sprung by some beagles in beating 

 for a hare. The sportsmen cried out " A hen pheasant ! " but a 

 gentleman present, who had often seen grouse in the north of 

 England, assured me that it was a greyhen. 



