112 



BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



drives, find a brace or two may be killed. Bat there is a 

 method of dealing with them in a more comprehensive style, 

 which is often practised on the Border moors, and which 

 I think is sufficiently interesting to merit a description. 

 This method is to out-manocuvre the grouse with a horse 

 and cart. There is of course nothing new in the idea. The 

 stalking horse was one of the first inventions of the aucipial 

 mind in long past ages, and to this day is used in many lands 

 to approach wildfowl. Within my own experience, trained 

 ponies are regularly employed in the " marismas " of southern 

 Spain to gain access to wild geese and other fowl ; and in the 



' >Tn 



' cnAI.l.KNGE. 



same country even the Great ]-}ustard is shot from a farm 

 cart when leading the corn ofl' the stubbles in July. 



To return to the grouse : the main drawback to the sys- 

 tem of "carting," and one which makes one reluctant to say 

 anything about it, is the opportunity which (especially on 

 certain days) it affords to the pot-hunter to seize a most 

 unfair and unsportsmanlike advantage of the game. How- 

 over, as this poaching, loafing, " half-a-crown-a-brace " sort 

 of gentry unfortunately know already quite as much as I can 



