234 THE GROUSE 



from them by the intruding pheasant ; he 

 more often falls a victim to the poacher 

 than any of his congeners ; and our game 

 laws admit of his being done to death at 

 a time when very decency would seem to 

 forbid any intrusion on the privacy of so 

 fine a gentleman. 



For the blackcock undergoes his moult 

 in the middle of July, parts with the lyre- 

 shaped tail so familiar to all, and, like 

 Samson, there goes with his crowning 

 glory all his strength and pride. No 

 longer does he move through the world 

 with that fine air of bravado we are 

 wont to associate with him at other 

 seasons of the year ; he now seems 

 broken in spirit and thoroughly ashamed 

 of his sorry condition, and the opening 

 of the shooting season finds him skulking 

 in patches of bracken and shaggy heather, 

 his womenkind still occupied with the 

 cares of families of half-grown poults, and 

 himself very unwilling, except in the 

 direst extremity, to take wing and expose 

 his nakedness to view. 



