110 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



sprung exactly in the place where we expected 

 to find them, and while charging, a young dog 

 in company, escaping our notice for a moment, 

 ran out and stood in a piece of sedgy ground, 

 partially covered with rank grass and rushes. 

 On our approach he was staunchly backed by 

 the old dog, and two more cocks sprung. The 

 last proved to be in the same condition as the 

 others ; but though we beat this meadow care- 

 fully and several others in the course of the 

 afternoon, we saw no more birds, nor have we 

 ever found them since in a meadow at this sea- 

 son of the year. 



When hunting ruifed grouse in October, 

 among the stony hills of Montgomery and Berks, 

 we have sometimes killed cocks in small spots of 

 black marshy ground in the very midst of the 

 huge gray rocks, from some one of which a 

 spring issued. During the heat of summer we 

 have found them in dense, dry thickets and 

 copses not far from the feeding ground, and when 

 driven out into the glare of day they almost in- 

 variably pitch close to a fence, or a tree, as if 

 blinded by the light. There is a small species 

 of hawk which builds its nest in a retired part 

 of the woods, and is a great enemy to these birds 

 on the breeding ground. We have never been 



