WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



ent grassy glades we saw several roe, but none within shot. 

 A fir-cone falling to the ground made me look up, and I 

 saw a marten cat running like a squirrel from branch to 

 branch. The moment the little animal saw that my eye was 

 on him he stopped short, and curling himself up in the fork 

 of a branch, peered down on me. Pretty as he was, I fired 

 at him. He sprung from his hiding-place, and fell halfway 

 down, but catching at a branch, clung to it for a minute, 

 holding on with his fore-paws. I was just going to fire at 

 him again, when he lost his hold, and came down on my 

 dogs' heads, who soon dispatched him,woundedashe was. 

 One of the dogs had learned by some means to be an ex- 

 cellent vermin-killer, though steady and staunch at game. 

 As we were just leaving the wood a woodcock rose, which 

 I killed. Our way took us up the rushy course of a burn. 

 Both dogs came to a dead point near the stream, and then 

 drew for at least a quarter of a mile, and just as my pati- 

 ence began to be exhausted, a brace of magnificent old 

 blackcocks rose, but out of shot. One of them came back 

 right over our heads at a good height, making for the 

 wood. As he flew quick down the wind, I aimed nearly a 

 yard ahead of him as he came towards me, and down he 

 fell, fifty yards behind me, with a force that seemed 

 enough to break every bone in his body. Another and 

 another blackcock fell to my gun before we had left the 

 burn, and also a hare, who got up in the broken ground 

 near the water. Our next cast took us up a slope of hill, 

 where we found a wild covey of grouse. Right and left at 

 them the moment they rose, and killed a brace; the rest 

 went over the hill. Another covey on the same ground 



36 



