THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
at the end of a grouse drive — and one of the most annoying sights on a 
moor is to watch the arrant duffer missing all the grouse that pass his 
way, but successfully plastering every greyhen that comes within his 
reach. 
While such indiscriminate slaughter should naturally be utterly dis- 
countenanced, at the same time it seems that an undue sanctity is some- 
times attached to the sex at large; a preponderance of old barren hens 
is always an undesirable feature of the ground, and it may be well to allow 
a careful gun some licence with hens that are unmistakably old ones. 
In this respect young Blackcocks deserve a consideration they rarely 
receive ; and it is sound policy to spare any cocks that show visible traces 
of the brown feathers of youth, thereby ensuring a young and healthy 
stock for the following year, which is the most important consideration 
in every branch of game preservation. 
To one unacquainted with their ways it might well seem strange that 
a mere handful of beaters should be considered enough for the purposes 
of driving black -game, when double and treble the number are required 
to drive Grouse or Partridges; but black-game are most consistent in 
their lines of flight, and the observant keeper soon comes to know 
exactly which way they will go of their own free will when disturbed from 
a certain direction, and thus finds that a very few men are sufficient for 
his purpose. 
No other game-bird varies so much as the Blackcock in degree of sus- 
ceptibility to the approach of danger. Other game-birds pack and grow 
wild as the season advances, but black-game are tame one day and wild 
the next, influenced in this respect to a surprising extent by every change 
in the weather. Sometimes on clear, sunny days they are almost impos- 
sible to approach at all, leaving the ground altogether on the first sus- 
picion of danger; at other times, and especially on misty, wet days, they 
appear utterly oblivious to the most obvious danger, settling again within 
a few hundred yards after passing over the guns, and allowing themselves 
to be herded back like sheep over the very spot, where the experience 
of but a few minutes before should have impressed on the dullest in- 
telligence the presence of danger. 
When the shooting party is reduced to one, there is a most sporting 
method of outwitting Blackcocks open to the enterprising individual 
— ^the stalk with the small rifle. This is further most beneficial to the 
ground, for the old cocks can then be singled out for destruction. 
40 
