88 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



other species, and instances have been known on the Con- 

 tinent, where a local migration has taken place, of their 

 travelling immense distances in a single night, though it 

 was not known whether they rested on the way ; but in 

 all probability they did not do so, as, when travelling from 

 point to point, they generally ascend to a great height in 

 the air, after the manner of all birds migrating, and pro- 

 ceed direct to their destination without any intermediate 

 halts, often being so exhausted on arriving as to be easily 

 captured by hand. In this country their journeys are 

 never very protracted, the longest journeys they ever take 

 being merely short passages from one range of hills to 

 another, or trips to the low grounds in search of food. I 

 have on two occasions seen single birds flying across the 

 valley of the Tone in Somersetshire, from Blagdon Hills 

 to the opposite range, called, I think, the Quantocks, a 

 distance of about fourteen miles, and there is no doubt 

 they often cross this valley from Dulverton and Exmoor, 

 as a rabbit-catcher on Blagdon told me he had seen them 

 arriving from that direction. 



The usual height at which Blackgame travel in the 

 air is from twenty to thirty feet, varied in accordance 

 with the strength of the wind. If this be strong, they 

 must naturally be content to lower their flight, gaining 

 whatever shelter they can from the various rises and 

 depressions in the ground by skimming close over it. If 

 Grouse, too, should be flushed with or beneath them, 

 when they are moving, they often " stoop " to travel in 

 company with them. The pace at which Blackgame move 

 is very deceitful ; for just watch for a moment that old 

 fellow sailing easilv and calmlv alonof the side of the hill 



o / / o 



