156 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



ing the newly-acquired dark feathers on either flank. 

 At that stage, it is not reasonable to expect that a species 

 so bold and intractable as Lagopus scoticus will lie cower- 

 ing- in the heather till almost trodden on. The grouse is 

 a finer bird than that ; nor is the sport of shooting 

 him over dogs so simple and so artless. The covies 

 must be followed again and again, out-manceuvered, 

 broken, and finally killed in detail. 



This leads me to the second part of my text, the 

 scent question ; for, undoubtedly, to find grouse time 

 after time in so wide and wild a country as the moor- 

 land, where marking" is often impossible, and where one 

 cannot tell down which glen or along which hillside the 

 grouse may have taken their course after disappearing 

 from view, means good dogs. Well then! bad scent 

 generally means bad dogs. True, there are days when 

 the scent is bad, sometimes almost nil. But scent is 

 always best to those dogs which best understand their 

 business. The dogs themselves may not be intrinsically 

 bad, and may be capable of doing- excellent work, if 

 they are excellently handled. It is a moral certainty that 

 a good man will have good dogs, simply because the 

 former understands his business and the latter appreciate, 

 that fact ; and, in proportion to their mutual self- 

 confidence and reliance, so the directing power of mind 

 in one is brought to bear on the instinctive faculties in 

 the other. One sees many dogs which appear to regard 

 a hunt on the moors as an institution specially arranged 

 for their particular delectation. These travel far and 

 fast, they are hunting one hillside while their owner is 

 helplessly endeavouring to work another. For his wishes 

 these canine assistants (?) care nothing. The keeper, 

 with stentorian lungs and an ear-piercing whistle that 



