BLACK-GAME SHOOTING. 431 



there is no reason to fear their extinction. Heath- 

 land planted with larch, is a favourite resort ; but 

 they prefer rushy ferny ground and glens of alder 

 and birch, on the buds of which they feed. It 

 might be difficult to introduce the red birds into 

 any county where they are not found at present ; 

 but wherever there is land slightly sprinkled with 

 ling, and partially planted with larch, birch, or 

 alder, and if in the vicinity of corn-fields so much 

 the better, black-game might be easily located. 

 They are very destructive to crops of grain. The 

 opening-day for black-game shooting should be the 

 1st of September. On the 20th of August, the 

 young birds are so indolent that they frequently 

 suffer the dogs to catch them, as they lie basking 

 separately ; and the shooter walks them up one by 

 one, so that when a brood is found, the probability 

 is that half the birds will be killed. But the great 

 evil is that the young cocks cannot be distinguished 

 from the hens, and they are shot indiscriminately. 

 The blackcock is like the pheasant, polygamous ; 

 therefore, wherever the hens are spared, the game 

 will increase. On the 1st of September, black-game 

 are not so forward, comparatively, as partridges ; 

 even that day would be full soon to commence 

 shooting them. They are yearly becoming more 

 abundant in the English plantations, and there 

 can be no more noble addition to the park, the 

 chase, or the forest, than the blackcock. In the 

 lower woodlands, therefore, they should remain 

 undisturbed until November, when the woodcocks 

 arrive. Were this attended to, there would be 

 splendid sport in that month, just when the phea- 



