200 BLACK-GAME SHOOTING. 



tion of, the larch firs, for which he flies to perch : 

 and send some one round to drive him from the 

 stubble, where, about sunrise, the black game may 

 be seen feeding like rooks. In the North, &c., the 

 female of this species is called gray-hen, but in the 

 New Forest both male and female are collectively 

 named heathpoults. 



The black-game rise somewhat like a young phea-. 

 sant, and are, I conceive, to one divested of anxiety, 

 and in good nerve, easy birds to shoot : more so than 

 a grouse or a partridge. 



BLACK-GAME SHOOTING, ON THE BORDERS OF HANTS 

 AND DORSET. 



At the commencement of the season, the black- 

 game here lie tolerably well, and particularly if the 

 weather is so hot as to drive them down to the 

 bogs. The gray -hen generally remains with the 

 pack, which seldom consists of more than five or six 

 birds. Nine or ten is considered a very large pack, 

 except in winter, when the cock birds all congregate 

 together in one flock ; and, in general, defy every kind 

 of fair shooting, as well as the few bungling artifices 

 that gamekeepers are master of, with regard to wild 

 birds. The keepers' only chance, therefore, is to 

 wait concealed for their flight; as a black-cock, 

 although one of the wildest birds in existence, will, 

 when once on the wing, seldom break his course or 



