NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 279 
cence, and during August and September, they are the very tamest of 
birds. Then all at once they appear to gain a sudden accession of 
strength and wildness; their timid skulking nature is discarded along 
with the weak, little, pointed, ruddy tails of their nestling plumage, 
and in a few weeks, even days, the young Blackcock, from being the 
tamest, becomes the wildest, of all our game-birds§ * * * By 
the middle of September the young Blackcocks are nearly full-grown, 
and about three parts black, with spreading tails. At that period they 
separate themselves from the young Grey-hens of the brood, and for a 
time become quite solitary. Being then scattered singly over a wide 
extent of rough country, they are less easy to find than to get at, for, 
though nearly full-sized, they lie extremely close in beds of bracken 
and rushes, or in the ‘‘ white grass’’ or patches of heather. Towards 
dusk they begin to feed on the seeds of rushes, especially the ‘“‘ spratt”’ 
or flowering rush, and being then temporarily gathered together, are 
much wilder than during the day. They continue ‘ on feed ” till it is 
quite dark. 

Youne Mate Scaup. November. 
“This (mid-September) is the season when young Black-game 
afford by far the finest sport over dogs ; for though they lie close, and 
offer easy shots, they require a great deal of hunting for; and a bag of 
perhaps eight or ten brace of well-grown handsome young birds, varied 
by a few brace of moor-partridge, and an odd Grouse or two picked up 
on the outskirts of the heather, is a very satisfactory day’s work.” 
The haunts of the Scaup, Fuligula marila, are thus 
described :— 
“The favourite feeding-grounds of the Scaup is over rocks where 
