218 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



if not quite, out of range. But the next bird 

 rises quite close to my feet, and there was no 

 excuse for my missing him, as I did, except 

 flurry and the provoking irregularity of his 

 flight. However, the next two fall, and we do 

 pretty well along the remainder of the beat, 

 securing altogether five couple and a half, a 

 duck, and two teal. Six of these little beauties 

 rose within shot of Harry, and he ought to have 

 got a right and left, but only secured one ; how- 

 ever, he retrieved his laurels by killing the second 

 stone dead, as the bereaved five wheeled round 

 a second time almost out of shot. 



There is not likely to be much in the rushy 

 field between us and Dunadd, the hill about a 

 mile beyond us. There may be a hare or an 

 odd snipe or so ; but we look about us and note 

 the flock of old blackcocks that are nearly always 

 sitting on the edge of the moss somewhere here- 

 abouts, but are too wary to often pay toll to 

 the sportsman. If we tried to stalk them, the 

 chances are that after one of us had had a long 

 crawl in a damp drain they would be off just as 

 he was hoping against hope for a shot, and settle 

 again to jeer at us not far off very likely on the 

 bank of the "old river" we have just left. 



"A blot in heaven, the raven flying high," 



whose unmistakable bark calls attention to his 

 presence, is all we see afterwards until we 



