220 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



would only appeal to those who prefer a few 

 perfect birds to many immature ones, then some 

 intermediate date, say the first of September, is 

 not too large a demand to make in the interests of 

 sport. 



It would then be necessary to leave an interval 

 between grouse and partridge shooting, to enable 

 the same sportsmen to be present at both. Might 

 not this be an advantage? and would not the 

 twentieth of September more fitly initiate the 

 annual onslaught on Chaucer's fearfulle birde ? 

 The young are immature even then, the late broods 

 specially so, needing little skill in the shooting, and 

 yielding, one would imagine, still less satisfaction 

 when shot. The ideal date, in the case of all 

 sporting birds, is obviously the change of plumage, 

 no matter how late it may be. But that is open 

 to the objection of being hard upon the fringe of 

 winter, when the clay is lifting at every step ; and 

 the unhardy would rather be in the snug home 

 coverts among the pheasants. 



Besides, the shooting depends upon the weather, 

 in a secondary sense. It demands for a back- 

 ground bare fields, broken by the green of turnips. 

 If the cutting is delayed for want of summer suns, 

 or, from untimely autumn rains, its range is 



