l24s Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil 



down to the lower ground. Three hirds fell to our four barrels ; one we had 

 some trouble in finding, but Bang, who retrieved nearly as well as he 

 did everything else, made him out at last under a big stone where the 

 bird had crept for shelter. We did not follow the birds, because, as we 

 had to come back over the flats below in the afternoon, we should most 

 likely come across them there, and we were now well up on the shoulder of 

 the hiU. Eive minutes later, both the dogs found almost at the same 

 moment, and ten birds got up. Here we scored our first bumper, four birds 

 being gathered to the bag, while the rest went over a spur of the hill straight 

 ahead. 



" They're joost gane to The Lairder," said Archy ; " it'll be a weel stockit 

 ane by the time we reach it, I doubt." 



Another lot went away from my right untouched ; and a third, which 

 Bang drew upon for some distance, sadly discomposing the pup, got 

 away with only a brace of their number left behind, both coveys pitching in 

 over the spur like the last. When we reached the brow of this spiir we 

 stood on the edge of a lovely little hollow in the hill, with high sheltering 

 heather all round a small tarn of half a dozen acres, with a small well- 

 heathered island in the middle. 



"Ay, ay," said Archy, "now we'U hae the cream o't ;" and we had not 

 walked fifty paces over the brow, when both dogs were standing right 

 and left at separate coveys. I got a brace out of mine ; Chiffens got one 

 and hit a second hard, which skewed away up the hill ; and, as I do not 

 like leaving wounded birds behind, and one of the laddies had marked 

 the bird, Chiffens took old Bang and the lad and went after it, and 

 retrieved it, while I squatted down in the heather and waited his return. 

 While I was sitting there, half a dozen golden plover, disturbed by the 

 shots from the island, came over my head, and I reached a couple of them, 

 which Miss Jessy, the wee bitch, sniffed at with a disdainful curl of the 

 nose. 



"That's a graun rafuge for a' sairts o' twa-leggit bein's," said Archy, 

 looking across to the island. 



" One might get a shot or two there, I should think, if there was any 

 boat." 



