130 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



and penetrating qualities, may at least claim to 

 be put on a par with its Scottish namesake. 

 However we took the field in good time, and 

 after ranging the moors for some hours, rather 

 for the purpose of exercising two brace of 

 promising young setters than with any expec- 

 tation of sport, and after being thoroughly 

 drenched to the skin, we returned to the farm- 

 house with five brace of grouse, whose half- 

 developed plumage and small proportions con- 

 vinced us of the backwardness of the season. 

 This consideration, indeed, coupled with the 

 continuance of bad weather on the following 

 day, induced us to postpone our grouse-shooting 

 until a later period, when the first flight of 

 woodcocks should have arrived. These make 

 their appearance about the beginning of No- 

 vember, and scatter themselves over the moun- 

 tains, where they may be found in considerable 

 numbers during that month ; but as the winter 

 advances they gradually retire from the hills, 

 and take up their quarters in the natural woods 

 that clothe the lower slopes of the ridges near 

 the great lakes; or become concentrated in the 

 covers of the interior of the island, especially 

 during hard weather, when additional reinforce- 

 ments continually drop in from England, Wales 

 and Scotland. The grand point therefore is to 



