250 THE GROUSE 



among the long, strung-out pack which is 

 streaming over. For a minute or so you 

 are loading and firing as fast as you can, 

 then the birds stop coming, the drive is 

 over, and you can hear the keepers coming 

 through the wood. 



Something like two hundred blackgame 

 must have come over, most of them 

 cocks, of which your host's Labrador and 

 Macfarlane's less showy but equally 

 serviceable " curly " account for eighteen 

 on the spot. There are still two certainly 

 to pick, which you saw to the ground 

 some two hundred yards back into the 

 wood, and three others that seemed very 

 hard hit, but carried on out of sight. 

 The latter you have probably lost, for 

 a wounded blackcock has amazing powers 

 of recovery, gaining strength as he flies, 

 and they may be miles away by now ; 

 but Macfarlane will have a hunt for them 

 at the far end of the wood, and will try 

 for the two dead ones as the drive comes 

 in, for he thinks that, if he " brushes in " 

 some rough fields and a part of the moor- 



