A COCK DRIVE IN SCOTLAND. 311 



juniper or faded fern by a blackcock or pheasant. Just as we 

 emerge on to the open piece of rough bog, which separates the bit 

 of covert from the slope on which stands the Birch Wood, the first 

 cock gets up, is saluted by every member of the party with at 

 least one barrel, and departs scathless. 



The Birch Wood is a wonderful place for wild game, and 

 especially good for woodcock, but the walking Is diabolical. It is 

 a strip of wood pretty nearly a mile in length, planted on a steep 

 slope, the surface of which is covered with huge boulders, rocks, 

 and debris. These are, more or less, overgrown with moss, fern, 

 and juniper, while over all there is a thick growth of birch. 



From this it will be understood that progress, even in. winter, 

 through this fine piece of covert, is necessarily very slow, and that 

 close and careful beating is required. When a large party is 

 assembled we do it in one beat, but on this occasion " we are 

 seven " only, and must make two bites of it, while even then the 

 outskirts next the moor will not be quite thoroughly worked. Two 

 guns are sent forward to the first ride, accompanied by the under- 

 keeper and a retriever, then Ross, having marshalled us in a line, a 

 gillie between each, gives the word, and we enter the sacred 

 precincts of the Birch Wood. The fun is not long of beginning- 

 The rabbit-holes have been stopped as much as possible ; the 

 owners rush frantically about, causing the expenditure of no small 

 amount of powder ; several pheasants rise and fall, and within five 

 minutes of the beginning of the beat there comes from my right the 

 welcome cry of " Mark cock," and a single shot from the same 

 qualrter brings the bird down. Then from my left there comes the 

 same cry, accompanied by the rapid discharge of two barrels. A 

 brown bird glides swiftly between two birch trees in front of me, 



