138 . BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



clay, and it was a relief to drag a bunch of mountain 

 bunnies into the nearest ride, where they were strung up by 

 their heels along with the capercailzie on a strong branch, 

 there to await a keeper's boy sent to fetch them home, and 

 not forgetting a scrap of paper torn from a note-book and 

 fixed conspicuously to them for the double purpose of mark- 

 ing their whereabouts and scaring away any prowling lynx- 

 eyed corbie- crows, who like nothing better than a share of 

 another man's meat taken on the sly. 



Eschewing f ur, the next addition to the bag was a braco 

 of wood pigeon returning to roost, whose shadows gliding 

 across the snow at a spot where the ground was bare thus 

 betrayed their approach, one falling to the first shot, and the 

 other of these birds, who would seem to keep constantly in 

 pairs all the year, as she came wheeling round to see what 

 had happened to the other, sharing a like fate. The wood 

 pigeon is one of the loosest-feathered birds existing. The 

 spot where they fall is almost invariably marked by a perfect 

 litter of cast plumage, and no other bird get so draggled and 

 spoiled in the republic of the game bag as they. 



Lower dow r n, where a mountain torrent spread itself out 

 over a land delta of its own making, in a number of thin 

 streams, a woodcock got up and sped down the glade with 

 hawk-like speed. This was too pretty a trophy to be lost r 

 and so a charge of No. 6 at forty yards brought the russet 

 plumage to the ground. Another was shot some way further 

 along the slope; but though these two had roused my 

 enthusiasm, and more likely ground was beaten under the lea 

 of the wood, no more were put up, and being now on the low 

 ground again, with the firs towering tier upon tier overhead, 

 I came to the conclusion that the capercailzie should have a 

 rest for the present, though no brilliant score had been made 

 no doubt, and turned my steps homewards. Just at the edge 

 of the plantations fringing the roadway leading to the house, 

 a cock pheasant strutted out of a ditch, and finding himself 

 in unpleasant proximity to the dog, took a short run, a 



