BALNAGOWN AND BIRDS. 91 



carry guns, but each carried a stick, and Morrison was further decorated 

 by a great net game bag swung from his shoulder. We made one 

 course through the first field and then back, my finger upon the trigger 

 and my pulses leaping as I waited for the startling whir-r-r which 

 would mark the breaking of my initial partridge. 



But neither this turn nor the next uncovered birds. We swung into 

 another field and took a circuit there without finding game. In a third, 

 while beginning to believe the birds had all migrated, one got out as 

 hurriedly as a quail, between Campbell and myself, and whipped around 

 behind us almost too quickly to be believed. The startled shot which 

 I fired at it was a miss. But at any rate, I had seen my first Scotch 

 partridge and now felt sure of the existence of such birds. 



The warmer, softer airs seemed more suited to the lowlands and by 

 contrast with the fiercer blasts of the heights they were not unpleasant. 

 I got a great deal less pleasure out of bird shooting than the pursuit 

 of the stag, but actually more thrills. The partridges are grayish 

 brown birds, smaller than a prairie chicken or grouse, and considerably 

 larger than a bob-white quail. Solid gray upon the breast, and brown 

 and slate gray upon the back. 



They broke cover very quickly, flew at high speed, but not always in 

 straight lines as the bob-white does. They are fond of taking to the 

 air with a whirling turn which made shooting them very interesting, 

 particularly when there was a good wind blowing. 



After the first or second time of flushing, they lie close, the greater 

 part of them getting up within twenty yards of the gun. Even at that 

 I am willing to subscribe to a statement that it is possible to miss one 

 occasionally. 



Campbell and Morrison and I, the three of us abreast, covered turnip 

 field after turnip field with clock-like regularity. At the end of a row, 

 the man at the unbeaten side would pull up a turnip and drop it to 

 mark the edge of the through just finished. From this we moved over 

 the necessary distance and thus covered the fields without leaving any 

 place actually untouched. 



Birds were plentiful enough to make good sport. At one o'clock, 

 when I sat down in the shelter of a hedge for luncheon, I felt that I 

 had been having a good day, and turning from refreshment to labor 

 again after I had disposed of the delicacies which fell to my share, 



