8 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



or three steps to launch himself into the air, and then his 

 flight is accompanied by some heavy and clumsy flapping 

 before he is fairly under weigh. After heavy rains or 

 snow, if they should be surprised in deep heather, I have 

 seen cocks totally incapable of rising, so that the dogs 

 have run on to the unfortunate birds before they have 

 gone a dozen yards. There is a wood at Dupplin where 

 this often happens, for Capers seem to resort thither to the 

 deep heather during wet and stormy weather, and, if 

 surprised in this situation, it is difficult to instil into the 

 brains of one's canine friends that this mode of capture is 

 not exactly a legitimate form of sport. 



I was much amused one day at Strowan, in Perthshire, 

 when I was placed forward in a wood, waiting for Caper, 

 at seeing tw r o cocks, which had come forward but were out 

 of shot, to my left, alight about 30 yards behind one 

 another on an open glade in the middle of the wood. 

 Immediately they saw me, both in turn toddled gravely 

 up the hill till they judged they were safe, and having 

 climbed on to a nice high bank, looked round and round, 

 and once more resumed their journey onward. 1 



Capers, whilst in the air, generally fly at such an 

 altitude as will enable them to keep clear of the highest 

 trees, and seldom are out of gun-shot from the ground, 

 except when it happens that they are strangers to the place 

 and meditate a long journey home ; then they w r ill put 

 themselves out of reach of their persecutors at once, and 

 move off at a height of 200 or 300 yards. Occasionally 



1 Tliis betrayed on their part a fine sense of reasoning, for they knew that 

 if they had again risen and resumed their journey their flight would neces- 

 sarily have to be down-hill, and consequently towards me. So by thus 

 ascending the hill they put such a possibility out of the question. 



