CHAP, in.] MARTEN CAT BLACKCOCKS. '27 



shots, a very moderate marksman ought to kill nearly every bird 

 that lie shoots at early in the season, when the birds sit close, 

 fly slowly, and are easily found. At the end of the season, when 

 the coveys are scattered far and wide, and the grouse rise and Hy 

 wildly, it requires quick shooting and good walking to make up 

 a handsome bag ; but how much better worth killing are the birds 

 at this time of year than in August. If my reader will wade 

 through some leaves of an old note-book, I will describe the 



O ' 



kind of shooting that, in my opinion, renders the sporting in the 

 Highlands far preferable to any other that Great Britain can afford. 



October 2Q(h. Determined to shoot across to Malcolm's 

 shealing, at the head of the river, twelve miles distant ; to sleep 

 there ; and kill some ptarmigan the next day. 



For the first mile of our walk we passed through the old fir 

 woods, where the sun seldom penetrates. In the different grassy 

 glades we saw several roe, but none within shot. A fir-cone 

 falling to the ground made me look up, and I saw a marten cat 

 running like a squirrel from branch to branch. The moment 

 the little animal sa\v that my eye was on him he stopped short, 

 and curling himself up in the fork of a branch, peered down on 

 me. Pretty as he was, I fired at him. He sprung from his 

 hiding-place, and fell half way down, but catching at a brand), 

 clung to it for a minute, holding on with his fore-paws. I was 

 just going to fire at him again, when he lost his hold, and came 

 down on my dogs' heads, who soon dispatched him, wounded as 

 he was. One of the dogs had learned by some means to be an 

 excellent vermin-killer, though steady and staunch at game. As 

 we were just leaving the wood a woodcock rose, which I killtd. 

 Our way took us up the rushy course of a burn. Both dogs 

 came to a dead point near the stream, and then drew for at lea>t 

 a quarter of a mile, and just as my patience began to be exhausted, 

 a brace of magnificent old blackcocks rose, but out of shot. One 

 of them came back right over our heads at a good height, making 

 for the wood. As he flew quick down the wind, I aimed nearly 

 a yard ahead of him as he came towards me, and down he fell, 

 fifty yards behind me, with a force that seemed enough to break 

 every bone in his body. Another and another blackcock fell to 

 my gun before we had left the burn, and also a hare, who trot up 



