GROUSE AND PEREGRINE. 21 



would suddenly start off on a brief but ineffec- 

 tual beat, and soon slink back to their former 

 station. I was dragging my weary limbs up the 

 interminable slope of the last mountain that 

 separated me from the lodge, and already antici- 

 pating the pleasure I should derive from the first 

 glimpse of its chimneys in the valley beyond, 

 when at an unexpected moment up sprang an 

 old cock grouse from a little gully formed by the 

 bed of a narrow stream, and wheeling over my 

 head, away he went, ' cucketing ' down the 

 hill. I had only time for a random shot, which 

 appeared merely to stagger him, and left a few 

 feathers floating on the air. His flight, however, 

 became gradually more laboured and difficult, 

 and I had just raised my hands to my eyes in 

 hopes of marking him down, when a shadow- 

 passing over the ground near my feet caused me 

 to look upwards, and I saw a peregrine in rapid 

 pursuit after my wounded bird, and gaining on 

 him every moment. He had already cleared 

 the valley in safety, and was evidently struggling 

 to attain the shelter of the thick heather a few 

 hundred yards up the opposite brow : but before 

 he could reach it down she came and stopped his 

 career in an instant. Having no wish to dispute 

 the prize with my successful rival, or to be com- 

 pelled afterwards to reascend the tedious hill 



