204 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



ing, when we have very cautiously let them know 

 that we were looking directly at them. The old 

 cock, that at times would stand nearly on end, just 

 to look all round him, I have seen lowering himself, 

 as if some spring within him was gently getting 

 limper and limper. Through my field-glass I have 

 noted the outside birds raise their clean-cut heads 

 for a second or two, then lower them, depress their 

 tails to the ground, and glide towards the others; 

 a few brown dots showing, now here, now there, 

 and the large covey is soon invisible if on a fallow 

 field not stubble, but old fallow lea. All our game- 

 birds possess this moon-seed property of making 

 themselves practically invisible when there is any 

 necessity for their doing so. 



Before these violent changes occurred in our fav- 

 ourite Surrey moorland haunts, I used often to 

 amuse myself by watching black-game being pro- 

 perly set up in a glass case. A black-cock in full 

 breeding plumage is one of the most imposing and 

 conspicuous birds you can look at, though the 

 bird is out of his proper place when he is with 

 the bird -preserver. The place to observe him is 

 when he goes to feed on a dark patch of moor-bog, 



