188 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



moderate shooting, I ought to have killed over 

 forty woodcocks that day ; but, as is always the 

 way with me if anxious about getting stuff, I 

 can't. So, for the rest of the day, down went 

 everything else that got up — grouse, snipe, 

 plover, duck, and teal — ^but I tailored the 

 woodcocks most awfully, or the bag would have 

 been a thing to talk of. As it was, it was a 

 very pretty one to look at. I remember among 

 the cocks there was a rare specimen of what I 

 never saw before — a pied woodcock, white bars 

 or stripes over the wing, a pied head and breast. 

 It was a very fine bird, and very handsome to 

 look at. All the woodcocks and game were put 

 by in what we thought a safe place, when a cat 

 got in and (will you believe it ?) picked out the 

 pied woodcock, and the pied woodcock alone, 

 for her prey. Dire and deep were the blessings 

 that cat received. John Munro, my keeper 

 then, who was a bit of a naturalist, with a pretty 

 notion of stuffing, and had set his heart on 

 adding this bird to his collection, said little ; 

 but that cat shortly afterwards disappeared. 



Well, those times of the woodcocks were 

 merry times ; but things don't last for ever, 

 and, for some reason or other, the cocks became 

 scarcer and scarcer every year for the last five 

 or six years of my tenure of Soval, till they 



