BLACKCOCK. 189 



XX. 



BLACKCOCK. 



JUST at the present moment the poor black 

 grouse are generally having a hot time of it. 

 After their quiet spring and summer they 

 suddenly find their heath-clad wastes invaded 

 by a strange epidemic of men, dogs, and 

 hideous shooting implements ; and being as 

 yet but young and inexperienced, they are fall- 

 ing victims by the thousand to their youthful 

 habit of clinging closely for protection to the 

 treacherous reed-beds. A little later in the 

 season, those of them that survive will have 

 learned more wary ways : they will pack 

 among the juniper thickets, and become as 

 cautious on the approach of perfidious man 

 as their cunning cousins, the red grouse of 



