WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



and face the wind in the dreary and upland ground, which 

 I had determined to beat, and where I had sent an attend- 

 ant to meet me. 



Passing over a long tract of furze and broom, I killed a 

 couple of hares, and drove some partridges off down to 

 windward; but as they flew quite out of the direction in 

 which I meant to shoot, I did not follow them. My pointer 

 stood immediately on getting into an extensive piece of 

 grazing-ground; his head highupshowed me that the birds 

 were at some distance. He drew on for some two or three 

 hundred yards, when two large covies of partridges rose, 

 and, unable to face the wind, drifted back over my head 

 like leaves. Bang, bang — and a brace of them fell dead 

 sixty yards behind me, though shot when nearly over my 

 head, and killed at once, I marked down the rest, and got 

 a brace more, when they went straight away, as if deter- 

 mined to make their next resting-place somewhere about 

 Norway. But my line was to windward still, in order to 

 hunt some ground where there was a chance (though a bad 

 one) of a brace or so of grouse. 



Picking up a snipe or two, and a hare, I worked up hill 

 against the wind along a track of wild heather and pasture- 

 ground. I n the midst of this was a small peat-bog,and,when 

 passing it, I flushed a brace of mallards, who, after drifting 

 about and trying to make their way to the sea, turned and 

 alighted in a swampy piece of ground, where there were 

 some small pools. By their manner I was sure that they 

 had some companions where they alighted, so desiring the 

 man who accompanied me to hold the pointer, I tried to 

 stalk unperceived to the spot where they were, allowing 



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