WILD FOWL. 159 



am also far more pleased by seeing a brace of good dogs do 

 their work well, and exhibiting all their fine instinct and 

 skill, than in toiling after twice the number when hunted by 

 a keeper, whose only plan of breaking the poor animals in is 

 to thrash them until they are actually afraid to use half the 

 wonderful intellect which nature has given them. 



Although the 20th of August is the day appointed for 

 legal execution of the blackcock, yet in most seasons the 1st 

 of September would be quite soon enough for the shooting to 

 begin, as until the commencement of September the young 

 birds have seldom acquired their strength or plumage, 

 and can be knocked down before the pointer's nose with 

 a stick almost as easily as shot ; indeed 1 have frequently 

 seen them caught in the hand. When in full vigour and 

 plumage there is no handsomer bird than an old blackcock, 

 and although his size makes him an easy mark, his cunning 

 and strength are pretty good securities for his not falling too 

 readily to the sportsman's gun. But in August even the old 

 birds are not fit to shoot, being neither in perfect condition 

 nor in full plumage. The blackcock is much more addicted 

 to feeding in the cornfields than the grouse is, and takes long 

 nights for the purpose of reaching some favourite stubble- 

 field. 



Few stags have got the velvet off their horns during 

 August, except iu favoured situations, where good feeding in 

 the spring and winter has enabled them to keep up their 

 condition and the strength which is required for the produc- 

 tion and growth of their weighty antlers. 



I find that towards the end of August, when the hill-lakes 

 and swamps are much disturbed by grouse-shooters, the wild 

 ducks bring down their young broods in great numbers, both 

 to the bay and to the lochs. Every evening I can make sure 

 of killing a brace or two as they fly to the corn-fields 

 regularly when the sun sets ; indeed they sometimes do 

 considerable damage by trampling down and eating the corn 

 before it is cut. But some of the wild ducks which are 

 killed in the bogs and swamps have their crops full of the 

 seeds of a coarse grass which grows in these places, and also 

 of some of the wild fruits, such as blackberries, &c. Indeed 

 I fancy that a wild duck is about as omnivorous a creature as 

 can be found, almost as much so as the man who eats him : 

 nothing which he can swallow comes amiss to him, whether 

 fish, flesh, or grain. The teal, on the contrary, appears to be 



