2I 4 



WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



of smoke, and crack of the gun, in nowise disturbed 

 the magnificent silence and solitude. 



Alone on the hills, he trusted to his knowledge 

 of the scene, and the game for a bag ; and felt 

 the stimulus and delight of being thus thrown 

 on his skill, and experience. He knew how to 

 humour the birds, and how to 

 modify his plans according 

 to the weather. He did 

 not take a straight line 

 across the moor, 

 as I have seen 

 some do, for all 

 the world like a 

 man ploughing a 

 , field, shooting 

 what rose by the way. 

 He began on the out- 

 skirts of the moor ; contented with a light bag 

 during the earlier hours, so long as he raised the 

 packs, and concentrated them on some undisturbed 

 portion in the centre. 



He followed the dictates of common sense, even 

 to the choice of clothes, whose colour blended with 

 the shades of the hills. One found that a drab- 

 coloured cap took him five or six yards nearer his 



