BLACKGAME 235 



It is then only too common an occur- 

 ence for him and his whole house to go 

 to swell the bag of the eager lessees who 

 rent so many of the moors where black- 

 game dwell. It savours more of slaughter 

 than of sport, the massacre of blackgame 

 in some thick patch of bracken on a hot, 

 August day, when the shooter opens by 

 plastering the hen as she flutters up at his 

 feet, and slowly works through the rest 

 of the family till none are left. 



Not till the middle of September do 

 the young blackcocks reach any degree of 

 maturity ; only then do they lose their 

 nestling plumage, their tails begin to 

 spread, and, drawing apart from the grey- 

 hens of the brood, they live in solitude, 

 while their strength and cunning grow 

 apace. 



By the end of the month they 

 commence to gather in packs, the old 

 cocks come out of their eclipse, and you 

 would be put to it to recognise in the 

 handsome, glossy plumaged, bold -flying 

 bird the timid skulker of but a month 



