CAPERCAILZIE, BLACKGAME, PTARMIGAN, ETC. 53 



As the corn ripens every brood flocks to it, and on the 

 generous diet they quickly attain maturity, the young cocks 

 turning nearly as black as the old ones. In the early part 

 of the season they are to be found in mixed covers of 

 bog-myrtle, cranberries, bell-heather, juniper, bracken, rushes, 

 long grass, and birch-trees ; then as harvest approaches they 

 seek the turnip-fields near the edges of the standing corn, 

 and a very easy prey they then are. A change, however, 

 quickly comes, and as soon as the crops are cut, lo and 

 behold ! the cocks are changed into the most wide-awake 

 of all game ; and now, without great trouble, it is no longer 

 possible to get within range. The hens always remain 

 more or less confiding, and when the stock is poor they 

 are always spared. Where it is very good, then a certain 

 number of old hens ought to be killed, and the best way 

 of doing this is to shoot them early in the season, when 

 flushed with their broods ; for at that time no one ex- 

 perienced in the matter can make any mistake between a 

 young hen and an old one. 



Blackcock stalking with either gun or rifle is a very poor 

 amusement ; but the author thinks that when driven they offer 

 the very finest of sport. For many seasons we had the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing a large head of blackcock annually put into the 

 bag on the Loch Nell and Kilmaronaig shootings near Oban, 

 then rented by our good friend Mr. James S. Virtue. Situated 

 between the Bridge-of-Awe and Connal Ferry, they extended 

 over fifty thousand acres, of which some twelve thousand was 

 wood ; and as in those days there was no disturbing railway 

 through the property, the whole shooting yielded some of the 

 best all-round sport in Scotland. With the exception of red- 

 deer and ptarmigan, every other species of game was in plenty, 

 and flapper and snipe-shooting could be commenced on the first 

 of August, and sport carried on every day till the first of 

 February. The blackgame were then a noted feature on this 

 estate; but as we are writing of the seven years from 1870 to 



