WALL SHOOTINa. 
69 
aroiind their lord and master. This season of admiration 
does not continue long ; the females disperse to seek proper 
situations for depositing their eggs, while the males, losing 
their feeling for love and fighting, re -assemble in small 
parties, and seek the shelter of the brush and fern beds, to 
complete a new moult ; and are seldom seen except early 
in the morning or at evening, when they exhibit a degree 
of timidity the very reverse of their former boldness and 
vigilance.' 
Many sportsmen have remarked that it is a most difficult 
matter to get a shot at a knowing old Blackcock. Craven 
says that he is generally alone, or with half-a-score of other 
*old cocks,' all on the qui vive. * Early in the autumn the 
hens and young broods are not generally difficult of ap- 
proach : they will lie close until almost touched by the nose 
of the dog ; but later they, too, get shy and wary, and as 
their sense of smell is very acute, it is useless to approach 
them down the wind Then, they feed 
around the sheaves in societies of two or three scores, with 
sentinels ever on the alert. The best mode of out-general- 
ing them is before their feeding- time to ensconce yourself 
in a sheaf nearest the spot they resort to, and there wait 
their coming. Or place yourself behind the wall, with 
which the Highland field is sure to be fenced, and by 
poking a stone out of it you have a glorious embrasure.' 
For cover shooting this authority recommends a single beater 
with one old staunch dog, as far better than a crowd of 
gillies, making a great outcry and scaring the birds so as to 
break up the covers, and sending them to seek shelter else- 
where, perhaps miles away, where you cannot follow them. 
Burns's spirited song, ^ I rede you beware at the hunt- 
ing,' although it applies, we suppose, more especially, to the 
female of the Ked Grouse, yet describes equally well the 
wary habits of the Grey Hen. 
The heather was blooming, the meadows were mawn, 
Our lads ga'ed a hunting one day at the dawn, 
O'er moors, and o'er mosses, and many a glen, 
At length they discovered a bonny Moor Hen- 
I rede you beware at the hunting, young men, 
I rede you beware at the hunting, young men ; 
Take some on the wing, and some on the Spring, 
But cannily steal on a bonny Moor Hen ! 
