GEOUSE. 



couple of hops, and then launched himself into the air with 

 his tail streaming gallantly behind him. Thirty yards' law 

 given him, and he gets a dose of "leaden hail" that brings 

 this brilliant game down to the snow, and this is the last shot 

 of the day. 



The guests are out sleighing, but when they return to 

 lunch there is a row of birds waiting their criticism on the 

 grass by the porch, two capercailzie, a cock and a hen, the 

 latter shot on the way home, nine rabbits in their thick grey 

 winter fur, a handsome mallard, two wood pigeons, ditto 

 woodcock, and last but not least the pheasant, which the 

 keeper's boy strokes " gingerly " from its glossy green-head 

 to the tip of its long unruffled tail, before he places it at the 

 end of the line. Such is the sort of mixed bag it is possible 

 to make when the snow covers the Perthshire ranges, and 

 regular sport on the heather or stubble is impracticable. 



THE LAST OF THE GROUSE. 



" Can you drive over here for a final harrying of the 

 birds to-morrow, before we go south ? " wrote the son of a 

 neighbouring laird a short time ago, and knowing the invita- 

 tion would be backed by pleasant company and at least fair 

 sport, and that of the kind which, late in the season, is 

 practised on most estates, I most willingly sent back an 

 acceptance. 



Looking out the following morning the prospect was 

 wintry enough. All the higher spurs of the ragged neigh- 

 bouring mountains lay shrouded in snow, where a few hours 

 before they had been green and fertile. Truly the hand of 

 winter was coming down upon the land, and in a little time 

 even the few still occupied shooting lodges would be bare 

 and empty of their summer migrants. But we judge things 

 as they affect ourselves, and the snow would make little 

 difference to-day, since it was confined to the higher ranges^ 



