SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TWELFTH 155 



the north. A local newspaper as late as August 29th, 

 1829, contains many notices stating- that the game on such- 

 and-such a manor or moor is reserved, and requesting 

 sportsmen to refrain from shooting thereon. 



What is the meaning of the word "wild" as applied to 

 grouse in August? It is difficult to understand what 

 degree of wildness is meant when one sees the expression 

 appended to a report of several hundred birds having been 

 shot. Perhaps it is merely a form of words used un- 

 consciously to magnify the exploits or gratify the vanity 

 of the shooters. Obviously, when grouse are really 

 wild they cannot be killed by the hundred over dogs. 

 By comparison with the numbers of people who flock 

 to the moors in August, those who follow the sport of 

 grouse-shooting throughout the season are few ; but, 

 it is the latter alone who really know what wildness 

 means. 



Yet in the August reports it has become almost a 

 set phrase, " birds wild and strong on the wing," a frequent 

 affix being " scent very bad." Now, the former can only 

 mean that the young grouse are normally well-grown 

 and rise boldly at 30 or 40 yards, or more, instead of 

 "cheepers" which can be poked up from under a dog's 

 nose. Young grouse hatched in mid- May are by 

 the Twelfth three months old and, in the ordinary 

 course of nature, are nearly full-grown, with their powers 

 largely developed. Such birds have cast the soft spotted 

 quills of their adolescence, and are acquiring the strong 

 black primaries of winter, although still, on either side, 

 will be found one or two of the spotted quills yet 

 remaining among the new. (See remarks on this subject 

 at p. 87.) Perhaps a streak of the yellow-barred nest- 

 plumage yet remains along the centre of the breast, divid- 



