132 GAIklE PRESERVERS AND BIRD PRESERVERS. 



owner well knows there is but little to shoot 

 on it. They are in luck to-day, however, and 

 before long find a brace of grouse and bag 

 them, and presently another brace, and these 

 also fall. One of them observes it must have 

 been a bad breeding season. But these birds 

 had had their eggs taken by the hoodie crow 

 whose nest they had seen in the birch wood 

 they had come through. The dog stands 

 again after they get on to higher ground, 

 and four birds rise and they kiU them all, 

 for they can shoot a Httle if birds rise near 

 them and they are not flurried. This is de- 

 lightful, but these are the remains of a fine 

 brood of ten. The falcon, who breeds on the 

 opposite island, found them out a month ago 

 and has reduced their numbers. They both 

 miss a snipe, and then each kills a hare, but 

 they only see and bag one more brace of 

 grouse. The ravens, whose voices they so 

 admired as they rose from the carcase of a 

 dead sheep, had swallowed these poor birds' 



