CHAP, III.] MARTEN CAT—BLACKCOCKS. 27 
shots, a very moderate marksman ought to kill nearly every bird 
that he shoots at early in the season, when the birds sit close, 
fly slowly, and are easily found. At the end of the season, when 
the coveys are scattered far and wide, and the grouse rise and fly 
wildly, it requires quick shooting and good walking to make up 
a handsome bag ; but how much better worth killing are the birds 
at this time of year than in August. If my reader will wade 
through some leaves of an old note-book, I will describe the 
kind of shooting that, in my opinion, renders the sporting in the 
Highlands far preferable to any other that Great Britain can afford. 
October 20th.—Determined to shoot across to Malcolm’s 
shealing, at the head of the river, twelve miles distant ; to sleep 
there ; and kill some ptarmigan the next day. 
For the first mile of our walk we passed through the old fir 
woods, where the sun seldom penetrates. In the different grassy 
glades we saw several roe, but none within shot. A fir-cone 
falling to the ground made me look up, and I saw a marten cat 
running like a squirrel from branch to branch. The moment 
the little animal saw that my eye was on him he stopped short, 
and curling himself up in the fork of a branch, peered down on 
me. Pretty as he was, I fired at him. He sprung from his 
hiding-place, and fell half way down, but catching at a branch, 
clung to it for a minute, holding on with his fore-paws. I was 
just going to fire at him again, when he lost his hold, and came 
down on my dogs’ heads, who soon dispatched him, wounded as 
he was. One of the dogs had learned by some means to be an 
excellent vermin-killer, though steady and staunch at game. As 
we were just leaving the wood a woodcock rose, which I killed. 
Our way took us up the rushy course of a burn. Both dogs 
came to a dead point near the stream, and then drew for at least 
a quarter of a mile, and just as my patience began to be exhausted, 
a brace of magnificent old blackcocks rose, but out of shot. One 
of them came back right over our heads at a good height, making 
for the wood. As he flew quick down the wind, J aimed nearly 
a yard ahead of him as he came towards me, and down he fell, 
fifty yards behind me, with a force that seemed enough to break 
every bone in his body. Another and another blackcock fell to 
my gun before we had left the burn, and also a hare, who got up 
