48 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



hour after the hounds were taken off; nor would they leave 

 the place until one or two had been shot. 



Nor is this the only instance which has come within my 

 own notice. On the shooting-ground which I took for a 

 season at Kinnaird, in Perthshire, was a pine wood, with an 

 oak copse at the side : here I frequently saw a fine buck and 

 two does feeding. They were very tame, and I tried in vain 

 to beat them out with the shepherd's dogs. I had not then 

 much knowledge of roe-hunting ; but I procured an old hound, 

 and pursued them every day for a week without getting a 

 shot. They were still to be found in their old haunts every 

 morning, although ever so hard hunted the day before. They 

 would take a stretch upon the open moor for an hour, and 

 then return, always keeping together; and it was only by 

 marking a much-used pass that I at length succeeded in 

 getting a very fair right-and-left, killing the buck with one 

 barrel, and one of the does with the other. A stray shot 

 struck the other doe, which happened to be in line, and 

 broke her leg, although I was not aware of it. Two days 

 after, a farmer sent me notice that a wounded roe had been 

 seen in the wood. I again put the hound into the cover, and 

 in a short time the poor creature came limping past, when I 

 shot it, to prevent the dog from putting it to a more cruel 

 death. I do not mention this as claiming any merit, for the 

 shots were open, near, and easy; greater skill might have 

 secured them some time before : but I think a fair inference 

 in proof of my assertion may be drawn from this and other 

 instances of the kind. 



When roes haunt a small belt of plantation, it is often im- 

 possible to say where they will break cover. The surest plan 

 is to take a pass a little way off, as the roe, wherever it may 

 break, soon falls into a beaten track when leaving one wood 

 for another. 



It is a rare thing to take a right-and-left at roe ; they slip 

 past so quickly, and generally in small numbers. I have 



