f 



SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES 41 



13th, 1885, eleven Teal in two shots, only one 

 escaping from the flock.^ One morning in January 

 1891 I fired two barrels in a packed flock of Godwits 

 that passed the punt on the Dornoch Firth and 

 picked up eighteen. But perhaps the most pro- 

 lific shot I ever saw with a 12-bore was a double 

 fired by a military doctor at Fort George in 

 January 1891 at a big flock of Knots. He gathered 

 forty-one. 



The best day's Woodcock shooting I have seen 

 occurred at Guisachan on November 22nd, 1890, 

 when, as the guest of Lord Tweedmouth, I was one 

 of the guns shooting the famous Fasnakyle Woods. 

 The Woodcock were "in," and I have never seen 

 so many before or since in Scotland in one day. 

 Besides these birds, we also made a splendid bag 

 of Roe, Grouse, Blackgame, Wild Duck, Pheasants, 

 Reeves' Pheasants and other game. I was the top 

 gun in one short beat above Fasnakyle House, 

 and in the best position, as the Woodcock rose 

 from springs in the centre of the birches and made 

 straight up-hill before passing forward. I shot 

 fifteen with sixteen cartridges in a few minutes, 

 and in the whole day we secured forty-five.^ 



On the vexed question of whether Woodcock 

 carry their young or not my experience is purely to 

 the contrary. I have flushed hundreds of Wood- 

 cocks at the time when these birds had young ones, 

 and have noticed great numbers going out to feed 

 in the evening, and have never seen one carrying its 

 offspring. Moreover, I have often disturbed them 



^ This was a red-letter day. I secured 107 duck by waiting 

 in a reed-bed on the Reed Bour. 



^ As many as sixty-five have been killed there in one day. 



