140 NATURAL HISTORY AND 



Few will deny that the man who habitually 

 brings home the heaviest game-bag has every 

 claim to be called, if not the best shot, certainly 

 the most accomplished sportsman of his party. 

 To apply the test fairly, however, we must ex- 

 clude those teeming high-priced moors where 

 good shooting alone is required, and stick to 

 those second-rate beats where birds must be 

 searched for with patient skill, and shot down 

 with dexterity and unfailing nerve. The shooter 

 who generally makes " the score" on such ground 

 would only rarely find his shooting match with 

 a fowling-piece all over the world. 



The seasons 1864-5 (the two first of my lease 

 of Kames and North Bute) were good breeding 

 years, and the birds free of disease on most of 

 the Scotch moors. By the 12th of the present 

 year they were very strong on wing, and from 

 unsettled broken weather much wilder than usual. 

 My team of sporting dogs is, however, most 

 efficient, and consists of a brace of very superior 

 Irish setters, an old English pointer bitch, admir- 

 able for close hunting, and a dropper (the cross 

 of a celebrated Eussian pointer dog with an ex- 



