GROUSE. 123 



ground. My companion nods significantly to me, and we 

 close up with a dog, who, giving a hasty glance in the most 

 sagacious manner, to assure himself that we are at hand, 

 plunges forward, and out of a clump of bracken hurtles into 

 the air a large bird, all black, who, with noisy wings, shoots 

 fifteen or twenty feet upwards, and makes off up at the glen 

 at a great pace. 



We recover our composure as rapidly as may be, and I 

 take the bird as he tops a stunted birch thirty yards off, 

 listening with satisfaction to the heavy thud of his fall, when 

 a motion of the hands sends a dog off at a gallop to retrieve 

 him. We are following, when another cock gets up, and, 

 rising high, tries to fly over us towards the opposite side of 

 the valley ; but this is the height of rashness, for we have 

 already had eight days at the grouse, and are " in the swing." 

 The other gun takes the shot, and the big bird comes down 

 back first, with a long trail of feathers behind him. We 

 cannot help admiring them for a couple of minutes. Mine 

 is wanting a feather or two of his neck a common occur- 

 rence at this time of the year, when the moulting season is 

 on; but the other is quite perfect, and, as the first of the 

 season, his twisted lyre-like tail has been promised to grace 

 a highland bonnet on a certain fair Saxon head. The blue 

 gleams of light on the back contrast beautifully with the 

 delicate white of the slender feathers under the wings, the 

 exposing of which as he rises makes him so conspicuous a 

 mark against the green of the bracken ferns ; but, to my 

 mind, the finest thing about him is the bold build of his head 

 the strong black bill, slightly hooked and sharp edged, the 

 thick neck set with glossy black feathers, and the bright 

 eyes, with their curious overlay of close scarlet wattles, giving 

 him a bold domineering expression that fits well with his 

 disposition and habitat. 



In size there can be no comparison between the lordly 

 blackgame (the cocks of which reach as much as four or four 

 and a half pounds, and the hens over two) and the smaller 



