40 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



blood and feathers, till they are perfectly exhausted. By 

 this time another cock will perhaps have arrived on the 

 scene, and will keep " cave " in case of danger, and look on 

 at the fight with a calm and unbiassed eye, not having the 

 slightest intention of calling " time," as he knows quite well 

 that the more his friends in arms get "pumped," the easier 

 time will he have of it himself when it comes to his own 

 turn ; and so the fight goes on, always one bird not 

 engaged being on the look-out, whilst the new-comers in 

 the ring in turn test their strength and activity with the 

 last victor, till the contest ends in a general melee and free 

 fight all round, one fighting with the other promiscuously, 

 and they become so weak and blind that they pay no 

 attention to the warning call of the sentry should there still 

 be one keeping watch. The spectator can then walk up to 

 them within a yard or two, when they will make off with 

 a considerable amount of unsteadiness in proportion to the 

 nature of wounds received. Numbers annually kill each 

 other in this manner, fighting till their heads are torn to 

 such an extent as to be almost unrecognisable. M'Intosh, 

 the Duchess of Athole's keeper at Duukeld, tells me he 

 picks up two or three cocks every spring that have been 

 killed in these fights ; and James Keay, our keeper at 

 Murthly, told me that on one occasion, when going his 

 rounds through the woods, he came upon two old cocks 

 who had so successfully mauled each other as to be lying 

 on the ground in a perfectly helpless state, facing each 

 other. 



About the end of April the hens again seek their 

 former breeding-places, and large numbers of them leave 

 their winter-haunts in the hills for the low grounds, there 



