BLACK CHOUSE. 
offering the easiest chances iinaginahlc. While picking our way in haste from the gully to the next hollow, 
the sound of wings was again heard, and turning rapidly I was just in time to drop the last of the 
brood, disturbed by one of the pony-men coming to gather up the slain. On reaching the spot where 
the keeper had last been seen I found him standing over and doing his best to cheer up poor Minnie 
who having been held back so long was anxious to ho drawing on; after moving forward, the little 
bitch speedily came upon the birds, w'hich again proved to be Black Game. Springing from amon" 
the cover in much the same manner as the first brood, eight were stopped ; the ninth, however, twisted 
so sharply to the right that, owing to the steepness of the ground, I was unable to swan" round 
sufficiently to obtain a shot. After leaving the sloping hill-side up which \yg had just made our way, 
another pack of Black Game, evidently consisting of twm broods intermixed, was found in the first patch 
of heather on the open moor ; the cover, however, being scanty, and affording little shelter, the birds, 
with the exception of a few that had strayed from the main body, rose all together and three brace 
only w^ere obtained. In order to make up the number required, I now turned further out on the open 
moors for Grouse, being of opinion that Black Game had suffered sufficiently. It was soon ascertained that 
there wms no necessity to proceed beyond the lower flats, as several packs were met with in rapid succession, 
the birds in almost every instance being extremely loath to rise. Twmnty brace (the number required) having 
been obtained, we turned homewmrds, and taking merely wdiat chances came in the way, the bag wms increased 
by six and a half brace. At the moment I much regretted that we had not taken the hill better prepared ; 
with but one brace of dogs and little over a hundred cartridges no great result could possibly be anticipated. 
Never during the autumns spent on the moors have I met with birds lying so well, and a heavy bag might 
undoubtedly have been made had the whole day been devoted to the object. A start for the hill-side had not 
been made till 10 a.m., the early hours of the morning having been passed in searching out some downy young of 
the Land-Hail for specimens, in a hayfield on the low' ground near the river. As the lodge was reached before 
2 o’clock after leaving the moors, the tw'cnty-six and a half brace (together wdth two hares and three rabbits 
that had also been turned over — fifty-eiglit liead in all) must have been obtained in little over a couple of 
hours’ shooting. Though so regardless of their own safety early in the season, by November Black Game have 
gained both strength and experience, and on most moors hard w'ork will be needed to make a ba" in 
open w'cathcr. ithout a thorough know'ledge of the ground and the usual course followed by the birds w'hen 
on wing, driving is of little avail ; by stalking the old cocks on the commanding positions they so frequently 
pick out on the hill-side but few^ shots will be obtained during tlie course of a day’s Avox’k, so careful is the 
wmteh kept Ixy these w'ary birds. Severe weather, however, affects them considerably : during heavy snow- 
storms I have on more than one occasion seen them so cut up by exposure to the cold that they Avould sit in 
the birch trees wdtli their plumage puffed out till they resembled balls of feathers, paying little or no attention 
even when approached within the distance of tw'cnty or thirty yards. IVhile returning home one wintry day in 
December 1800, from shooting on the marshy ground near the banks of the Lyon, I observed a couple of Grey- 
hens sw'aying backwards and foiwvards in the branches of a Avaving birch. A blinding squall of snow AA'hich 
drifted as it fell AAas passing ov'cr at the time, and avc arriA^ed almost beloAv the tree before the slifirhtest signs 
of alarm AAcre exhibited, a shout being needed to put them on AA'ing. Eurther in the plantation, Avhere more 
shelter could be obtained, scA'cral others Averc seen, seven or eight being perched among the branches of a 
single tree. In all probability they Avere collected in still greater numbers in other parts of the Avood, as 
the packs appeared to have been entirely driAmn from the higher slopes along the hill-sides to which they 
usually resorted. 
In fine Aveather during Avinter and early spring the oldest birds collect at daybreak on some open spot and 
go through the most extraordinary manmuA’rcs : at times these performances appear to be indulged in simply 
for amusement ; as spring advances, however, the animosity of the birds increases. In December 1807, having 
