158 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



and it then needs thoroughly useful dogs to find them 

 again. This is best illustrated if one happens to be at 

 the spot where such a covey stop, after being fired at. 

 One hears the shot and, sitting down, presently sees a 

 straggling line of grouse top the ridge and dip down the 

 sloping glen. Suddenly one of them stops — appears to 

 dive headlong into a patch of long heather within twenty 

 yards of the ridge. The rest hurry on, closely hugging 

 the heather, till, at the bottom, three more wheel sidelong 

 to the right and tumble themselves headlong into the 

 covert, all scattered and apparently careless as to how 

 they alight. The rest swerve in their flight, taking a 

 second glen. Fifty yards up this, down plumps another, 

 then another — now the remaining three are lost to sight. 

 One sits still and waits patiently, knowing that our friend, 

 whom we will call " Syren," will be following up. Presently 

 he appears. He has already walked right past number one, 

 and numbers two to four, before his dogs have appeared on 

 the scene. When they do come, it is a wild rush — a few 

 wide gallops. There is no systematic hunting, such as is 

 here essential to find lying birds. Syren passes close to the 

 first birds, but misses that lateral glen on his right, where, 

 as we have seen, the second lot are lying. He remarks 

 that they "must have gone on" and himself does likewise. 

 Then, one can pick up in half-an-hour three or four brace 

 of fine young grouse on the ground where friend Syren 

 has only had a long shot at the old cock. 



Now, walking about a moor with a gun and a dog 

 thus, is not grouse-shooting; but, if Syren happens to 

 report his bag, he will probably add that stereotyped 

 phrase, "Grouse wild and strong on the wing," etc 

 No one can fairly dispute his ingenuousness, for he is 

 totally unconscious of having again and again walked 



