204 BLACK-GAME SHOOTING. 



given in Bewick as having formerly been known to 

 visit this country ; the same species of which so many 

 are brought to London from Norway, and sold at the 

 poulterers, sometimes for a sovereign each, by the name 

 of kappercally. The natives, just before the breeding 

 season, entice these birds, by an imitation of their call, 

 towards an ambush, from which they shoot them. 



BLACK GROUSE, or BLACK COCK. Tebrao tctrixLc coq de 

 bruyere, d queue four chue. 



To shoot a black cock (in the winter), when he be- 

 comes wild, you should wait near, or in the direction 

 of, the larch firs, for which he flies to perch : and send 

 some one round to drive him from the stubble, where, 

 about sunrise, the black game may be seen feeding like 

 rooks. In the North, &c., the female of this species is 

 called gray-hen, but in the New Forest both male and 

 female are collectively named heathpoults. 



The black-game rise somewhat like a young pheasant, 

 and are, I conceive, to one divested of anxiety, and in 

 good nerve, easy birds to shoot : more so than a grouse 

 or a partridge. 



BLACK-GAME SHOOTING ON THE BORDERS OF HANTS AND 



DORSET. 



At the commencement of the season, the black-game 

 here lie tolerably well, and particularly if the weather 

 is so hot as to drive them down to the bogs. The 

 gray -hen generally remains with the pack, which seldom 

 consists of more than five or six birds. Nine or ten is 

 considered a very large pack, except in winter, when 



