BLACKGAME 59 



indiscriminate shooting be carried on, it leaves !>ut a small 

 percentage of breeding birds to carry on the stock. 



Change in the condition of the ground they have been 

 accustomed to inhabit materially affects them, and the 

 necessary food and kind of shelter they require often 

 change through the advance of time. For Blackgame like 

 best young plantations skirting moors and cultivated 

 lands ; when, therefore, these develop into big, silent 

 woods, as in course of time they will, if left alone, the 

 birds move off to seek for "pastures new," leaving their 

 old haunts to the Owl and AVoodcock, and the old sports- 

 man may then wander all day through the deep heather 

 and lofty pines without seeing a single bird, where he 

 formerly used to kill his ten or fifteen brace any day in 

 the autumn. Of late years, too, the springs have not 

 been all that could be desired. Heavy snow and hail 

 showers have occurred often in Scotland in the beginning 

 of June and caused great damage. One heavy storm at 

 this time, when the chicks are just taking their first peep 

 of the world, is quite sufficient to exterminate such delicate 

 little creatures as they are. They are also subject to 

 numerous other dangers, and being hatched generally on 

 rough and swampy ground, they frequently end their 

 short existence by tumbling into peat-holes and drains 

 from which they are unable to extricate themselves. 

 However, sportsmen must hope for the best, for many a 

 one would be sorry to miss from the mixed bag the 

 addition of the Blackcock, certainly one of the handsomest 

 birds of the chase we at present possess. 



The best districts in Scotland for Blackgame are Dum- 

 friesshire, Eoxburgh, and parts of Perthshire, Inverness, 



