143 SHOOTING. 



do all the Highland localities of Scotland. The whole coast of this 

 part of Britaiii opens out a grand field for the sport ; and to one 

 who wishes to enter zealously into it, we would recommend him 

 to take a tour round the western isles, by the north cape, re- 

 tunung by the eastern side of the island. He will find sport of 

 this description to his heart's content. 



We find that wild-fowl shooting is zealously pursued ia India, . 

 both by British residents as well as natives. "The English/' says • 

 Mr. Pennant, "send out their servants _ as weU as Indians to shoot j 

 these wild-fowl on their passage. It is in vain to foUow them ; 

 they therefore form a row of huts made of boughs, at musket-shot 

 distance from each other, and place them in a line across the parts 

 of the west marshes of the country where the fowl are expected to 

 pass. Each stand is occupied hj a single person ; these, on the ap- 

 proach of the birds, mimic their cackle so well that they will answer, 

 wheel, and come near the hovel. The sportsman keeps motionless, 

 and on his knees, with his gun cocked, and never fires till he has 

 seen the eyes of the wild-fowl. He fires as they are goiag from 

 liim; then picks up another gun that lies nigh him, and discharges 

 that. The fowl kiUed he sets up on sticks, as if alive, to decoy 

 others- he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a 

 good day (for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers) a 

 single Indian will kill two hundred. Notwithstanding every kind 

 of wild-fowl has a different call, yet the Indians are admirable 

 in their imitation of every one." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



BOOK SHOOTING. 



This is very excellent sport, and comes to the sportsman's re- 

 lief at a seasonable time — the month of May. The rook is about 

 the size of the carrion crow, and is very like it, except in its glossy 

 plumage. _ The base of the biU of the rook, and nostrils, as far as 

 the eyes, is covered with a white skin, which constitutes one of 

 the points of difference between it and the common carrion crow. 

 Hooks are gregarious, and collect ia vast multitudes at mormng and 

 evemng to repair and return to their feeding and resting places. 

 Dui'irig the breeding time they live together in large societies, and 

 bmld their nests on trees close to each other, and not unfrequently 

 even in the heart of a populous city. " Some years ago there were 

 several large ehn-trees in the college garden, behind the Ecclesias- 

 tical Court, Doctors' Commons, ia which a number of rooks had 

 taken up theii' abode, forming ia appearance a sort of convocation of 

 aerial ecclesiastics. A young gentleman who lodged in an attic, 

 and was their close neighbour, frequently entertaiaed himself with 



