BLACKCOCK SHOOTING IN BOHEMIA 



only slightly blacker than the sky ; the moon has 

 sunk below the edge of the horizon ; and the stars 

 shine but dimly and faintly. Not a cry from bird or 

 beast disturbs the stillness. All Nature seems breath- 

 less awaiting the dawn ! One must have passed 

 this hour in a forest or on the mountains before one 

 knows what silence means ! 



It was bitterly cold work sitting there that March 

 morning, and I was more than glad that I had 

 brought with me, from the carriage, the fur-lined 

 fuss-sack a sort of bag into which one gets bodily, 

 and which reaches almost to the armpits without 

 which no Austrian would think of driving, during 

 the winter months. 



Far away in the forest an owl hooted. It was 

 the first sound I had heard, and, breaking in as 

 it did on the weird stillness, it seemed almost like 

 a burst of demoniacal laughter. 



A sickly grey light glimmered in the east, and 

 objects near at hand began to loom up through the 

 semi-darkness. Patches of unmelted snow flickered 

 ghostlike through the gloom. 



A partridge called in the distance ; and then a 

 rush of whirring wings, and the sound of a heavy 

 soft body settling on the ground, warned me that 

 the first blackcock had arrived at the trysting-place. 

 A low "cluck, cluck" followed, and soon more 

 whirring of wings and several " dumps " betokened 



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