118 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



quite out of the question. A single man can concentrate 

 undivided attention on watching his opportunity, and if 

 possessed of a moderate amount of judgment, should at once 

 decide when birds rise, whether to fire or not. Where two 

 guns are shooting together, it frequently happens that 

 bungles occur through misunderstanding, and advantages 

 are lost through divided counsels or faltering decision. 

 Though long shots, as a rule, should be avoided, it some- 

 times hai)pens after repeated failures to approach a pack 

 (these being invariably wilder than smaller numbers), that 

 if a single bird be killed at a long distance, the remainder 

 become more negotiable. They perhaps alight all scattered 

 in a long broken line, just beyond the shot bird, and two or 

 three brace may result which would not otherwise have 

 been secured. 



From what I have written, it will be seen that it con- 

 stantly happens that the sportsman has the opportunity of 

 firing at Grouse which are still sitting on the ground. It 

 is needless to say that such shots should never be taken. 

 They are a breach of the canons of fair play, and cannot be 

 too strongly deprecated. Not only are such shots repulsive 

 to sportsman-like instinct, and entirely eliminate one of the 

 chief pleasures of shooting — i.e., the handling of the gun — 

 but as a matter of mere " blood and feathers " they do not 

 " pay." So strong a bird as the Grouse, clad in his full 

 steely plumage of winter, is much less vulnerable when 

 sitting than on the wing. Unless struck on the head or 

 neck, or on the exposed point of the wing (the rest being 

 buried under the flank feathers), a Grouse will nearly always 

 manage to rise, however hard hit, and fly a considerable 

 distance, probably getting out of sight. This of course neces- 

 sitates hunting a dog to recover him, thereby wasting much 

 time and disturbing a wide extent of ground. Still there are 

 people who from excitement, or (infinitely worse) from sheer 

 greed, seem unable to resist the sitting shots ; and it was to 

 the latter class I referred before, who on certain days, when 

 the Grouse appear quite lethargic, can perhaps massacre a 

 dozen brace without making a single fair shot. The 

 dastardly advantage which is thus aflbrded to the un- 



