BLACK GAME 229 



that date, as a rule, the majority of the birds are not 

 in shootable condition ; moreover, from their skulking 

 habits and general reluctance to take to flight they afford 

 but tame sport for the gun. Sportsmen, therefore, usually 

 defer the following of these game-birds until some time 

 after the legal opening day, preferring to give both old 

 and young time to gather strength, the former after 

 moulting, and the latter on acquiring the power of flight. 

 About October comes the full reward of these patient 

 sportsmen, for by that time blackcock are strong on the 

 wing, and, in the case of adult birds more particularly, 

 handsome of feather. At the latter season they afford 

 fine sport, the celerity of their movements on the wing 

 oftentimes calling for the gunner's best display of skill 

 to bring them down. 



It is highly probable that were the close-time for 

 black game extended to September I, much better 

 accounts would be heard respecting their status in 

 many a northern county, It might even be well to 

 still further defer the opening date of shooting, as 

 certainly many young black grouse are not properly 

 matured, either as regards growth of body or of plumage, 

 until the season now accorded for shooting has run a 

 month of its course. The gain in respect of condition 

 of the later-killed birds is only equalled by the increased 

 excellence of the sport they afford for the gun. The 

 shooting of immature young or of tail-less old cocks 

 rising laboriously from the brackens in August is not at 

 all comparable as a sport with the killing of full-plumaged 

 birds as they tear along on a breezy day in October, or 

 upon a crisp frosty morning in early December. I think 

 few gunners of experience would grumble if a full 

 month were taken from the beginning of the black game 



