242 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



and is only available on rugged, hilly moors. But there 

 are, on all moors, wide stretches of flat ground, wholly 

 devoid of "advantage" to the gunner, and on which he 

 may see his handsome quarry in dozens, strutting about 

 on the short heather, or loudly " becc-ing " out their defiant 

 challenge, as though conscious of security. A few shots 

 may of course be got at these, and a brace or two 

 secured, single-handed, by short drives. But there is a 

 method of handling them more comprehensively, which 

 is often practised on the Borders, and which merits a brief 

 description. This method is to outmanoeuvre the grouse 

 by means of a horse and cart. There is nothing new in 

 the idea. The stalking-horse was one of the earliest 

 inventions of the aucipial mind, and to this day is used 

 in many lands to gain access to wildfowl. In Spain, 

 for example, within my own experience, trained ponies 

 are employed for approaching wild-ducks ; and in the 

 same country, the great bustard is shot from a farm- 

 cart, when the corn is being led off the stubbles after 

 harvest. 1 



As already explained, a bright frosty morning in 

 October finds the grouse scattered about in pairs, or 

 in small parties, sitting quite openly and in full view. 

 Should a human being (with a gun) appear alone, they 

 would at once rise, a quarter-mile away, and ily right 

 out of sight. But by a lumbering creaking cart, pitching 

 and tumbling over the rough ground, like a cross-channel 



] I have seen the savages of East Africa (Wandorobo and Kikuyu) 

 employing a donkey to approach big game. To it, they had fitted a pair of 

 wooden horns, rudely approximated in shape to those of the animal they 

 were endeavouring to outwit (oryx or hartebeest), and by that deception, 

 hoped to get near enough to bring their poisoned arrows into effective use. 

 In its inception, the system does not materially differ from that I am about 

 to describe. 



