THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER. 203 



time for black-cocks is from the first of June to the 

 sixteenth of August. In the spring the black-cock 

 -can easily be approached, for they are so taken up 

 with their ridiculous performances of drumming and 

 dancing, that they fall an easy prey to the gun. The 

 balance between the sexes is thus easily kept up in 

 this way. In England, on the contrary, dozens of 

 cocks worry and harass each hen, with the not in- 

 frequent result that she never succeeds in hatching 

 out a brood at all. 



To return, however, to our " First." As we came 

 over the bank where the little moor ran steeply down 

 to the valley we came upon another lot of birds, which 

 yielded us four more, but all hens or young cocks. 

 Then we turned round and took a beat back. To 

 my surprise some flappers got up, and I bagged two, 

 wondering at their presence so far from water. I 

 Jearnt afterwards that the wild duck breeds in the dry 

 heather, and that these young birds are especially 

 valued for the table, as their food, consisting almost 

 entirely of " oerts,"* gives them a peculiarly delicate 

 flavour. 



At last the little moor was worked out ; now I was 

 to see the use of the spaniel. Facing the moor were 

 a number of meadows, the fences of which, like nearly 

 -all Exmoor ones, consisted of banks about five feet 

 high, topped with thick beech hedges. Our host sent 

 a gun on each side. 



" Up on the 'edge, Clo," commanded the spaniel's 



* Oerts is the Devonshire name for the bilberry, also called 

 whinberry and whortleberry. 



