116 GEOUSE AND BLACK -GAME SHOOTING. 



berry, found in mossy places, called in Scotland the 

 " crawberry ; " and the seed of the rush before-named.* 

 They, being very strong on the wing, have not the same 

 reason as the young packs for keeping near their food, and 

 are often found far from it, especially in the heat of the 

 day ; shelter from the sun being their chief object. There 

 can then be no better place to beat for them than among 

 thick crops of bracken. Should you find them in such 

 good cover, they will often give you a capital double 

 shot. 



As the season advances, black-game are the wildest of 

 all birds. Fair open shooting at them is quite out of the 

 question. As they seldom eat heather, their food on the 

 moors soon becomes scarce; they then much more frequent 

 the stubble-fields and copses by the hill-sides. You may 

 often see twenty or thirty feeding together on the sheaves, 

 when the corn is first cut ; but they are exceedingly alert 

 for the approach of an enemy. I have seen them doing the 

 farmer as much injury as so many barn-door fowls. Your 

 best plan then is to hide yourself among the sheaves, and 

 wait for their feeding-hours. If you are well concealed, 

 and select the proper part of the field, you may have an 

 opportunity of killing a brace sitting with your first barrel, 

 and another bird with your second. 



As the fields become bare, and the days shorten, they 

 begin to feed three times ; namely, at daybreak, at noon, 

 and an hour before dusk. To get a shot then is much 



* I shot a fine old cock in August 1840, whose crop was full of a 

 yellow flower of the dandelion kind, very common on the moors. 



