CHAPTER XX 



MOORGAME IN MID-AUTUMN 



The month of September, as already mentioned, is the 

 worst period of the season for killing grouse to dogs. 

 Blackgame, by the end of the month, are sufficiently 

 thinned ; the season for shooting over dogs in the open 

 is thus practically finished by mid-October. 



But in October a new era opens in the grouse-shooting ; 

 so that, between the two game-birds, there is no break 

 in the sequence of sport on the moors. This arises from 

 the altered habits of the grouse. They no longer cower 

 in packs as was their wont in September. The first bright 

 frosty mornings in October, speedily dissolve those packs 

 into twos, fours, and sixes, scattered widely over the 

 hills, and sitting bold and conspicuous on every ridge 

 and knowe. 



At this period, a man with a good eye and who knows 

 how and where to look for them, may secure several brace 

 in a day on rugged or broken ground, either by stalking 

 the grouse that he has descried sitting: or by "edging" 

 them from the cleughs, sykes, or peat-ravines which 

 intersect most moors. 



By the latter method, very excellent opportunity is 



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