138 NATURAL HISTORY AND 



hunting. The mothers nurse their young ones in 

 this way, which are the most horrid imps it is 

 possible to fancy. 



The grousing of this island would never suit 

 many of the sportsmen-migrants who crowd our 

 moors in August and September. The battue 

 system from the south has been so successfully 

 applied, even to Scotch moors, that in all our 

 first-class ranges the difference between good and 

 bad sportsmen or good and bad dogs is scarcely 

 noticeable. If the man is a fair shot, little else 

 will be required of him; while his dogs, if 

 superior ones, are wasted on such ground, and 

 may even have their mettle slacked, their hunt- 

 ing powers weakened, and their instinct dwarfed, 

 from finding multitudes of birds without working 

 for them. To my mind, sixty or eighty brace 

 killed on these swarming beats deserves to be 

 placed in the same category as a pheasant drive, 

 or shooting rabbits in a teeming warren. 



The moors which give most pleasure and satis- 

 faction to a true and able sportsman are those 

 which, with the aid of first-rate dogs, will afford 

 a bag of from twenty to thirty-five brace. On 



