218 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



down the water, disturbing some widgeon which could not 

 be reached, and picking up three more snipe from a bed 

 of reeds, a moor-hen, and a couple of wild ducks, all of 

 which trophies took their way to the sad republic of the 

 gamebag consecutively. 



And then we lunched; the short winter day of high 

 latitudes almost spent, and a choice bit of ground for 

 "cock" yet to be searched. We took our meal under the 

 lichened shelter of some birches, weather-beaten and dwarfed 

 by repeated gales blowing down the neighbouring corrie. 

 At our feet sparkled a fire of pine branches drawn from 

 a dry corner under that rock which served us as a comfort- 

 able seat and table when a cushion from the trap that had 

 brought along our provender was placed across it. The cold 

 game pie was both juicy and tender; the "October brew" 

 from a stone jug was amber clear, and as sparkling as Moet's 

 best, and an inch of ripe and crumbling Stilton with a 

 " short " sip of Glenlivet put the finishing touches to the 

 sufficient if frugal refreshment. 



It took us about as long as our cigars lasted to follow 

 the smooth course of a roadway up a ridge, across its brow, 

 and down the opposite glacis. From the top we saw the 

 wide plain of the " mournful and misty Atlantic " looking 

 black as ink amongst the framing of snowy hills on every 

 side, but under us the warmer shelter of sloping plantations 

 of larch and holly, cat up with water channels and dotted 

 everywhere by dark towering heads of pines and strong 

 young spruces. 



There was little time to spare, so a couple of spaniels 

 that arrived in charge of a boy from the keeper's cottage 

 hard by were turned in, and soon the ball was going merrily 

 again as they quartered the cover scientifically, and we 

 walked silently behind down the parallel spinneys. The 

 rabbits alone were numerous enough to have employed half 

 a dozen guns, and flashed hither and thither in tempting 

 style, a dozen or two paying the penalty of their rashness. 



