BLACKGAME 



259 



Border counties 

 numbers 



They 



in 



throughout 



the northern 



are shrinking 



the Highlands and Central Scotland, 



though in Galloway and the Border 



counties they seem better able to hold 



their own. 



The figures of the best years on the 

 Duke of Buccleuch's Drumlanrig Castle 

 estates in Dumfriesshire have been quoted 

 before ; but as, alas ! they may never again 

 be approached, these totals may be safely 

 given as records for all time : — 



The best individual day on the Duke's 

 ground was 247 blackgame (of which 

 over 200 were cocks) to eight guns ; 

 which is also the largest number of 

 blackgame recorded to have been killed 

 in one day in the British Islands. 



Fifty brace of blackgame in a day is 

 now a rare feat, though it has been 

 accomplished at least twice of late years 



