126 A HUNDRED YEARS 



shooting, and close to wliat was then the Inverewe 

 kennel in some heather, now replaced by tall timber, 

 a mixed lot of partridges and grouse got up. We each 

 killed a partridge and a grouse, and it was a very rare 

 occurrence, that would not be likely to happen more than 

 once in a century. 



On two different occasions I have killed a hare and a 

 grouse with the same shot, and another time I shot a 

 woodcock and a stoat with the one barrel ! On one 

 occasion I made quite a name for myself. It was when 

 a small covey of grouse rose in front of me at the Ardlair 

 march; the tenant of the farm, a Mr. Reid, was standing 

 on the opposite side of the boundary at the time, and 

 I happened, by a fluke, to kill three of the birds with 

 the right barrel as they rose and the remaining two with 

 the left barrel as they crossed ! Reid afterwards im- 

 proved on the story by declaring that the covey was a 

 big one of at least a dozen, and that I killed every one 

 of them with the two shots ! This yarn he spread over 

 the whole parish — I might even say county — much to 

 my confusion. 



But really the greatest fluke I ever made was when I 

 let off a rifle, just to see how far away the bullet would 

 hit the water, at three wild swans as they rose on the 

 wing from the sea at the mouth of the River Ewe, I 

 being about one thousand yards away. My bullet 

 actually grazed the tip of one of the swans^ pinions, and 

 down he came. We were so long in getting a boat 

 launched — it was full of ice and snow — that by the time 

 we got started the swan was far out to sea. Fortunately, 

 however, for us — and, as it turned out, for the poor 



