114 GAME BIRDS. 



to shift for themselves, they will sometimes make off altogether, 

 in which case good sport will generally follow. 



The main object, however, should be to kill the old cock, which 

 will most likely enable you to pick up the young ones, one after 

 another. After hearing the discharge of a gun, which terrifies 

 them, they lie so close that you may sometimes take them up in 

 your hand from under the dog's nose. 



If the night should have been wet previous to the day of shoot- 

 ing, grouse will not lie. They will erect their heads and run, 

 and the only chance the sportsman has is to run also, which, how- 

 ever, is not recommended, as it is sure to spoil the dogs, for, seeing 

 you run, they will do the same. No sport is so laborious lor either 

 man or dog as that of grouse shooting ; two or three brace of dogs 

 are indispensable, only one brace to be hunted at a time, and that 

 for only half a day, which will afford all the dogs a sufficient time 

 for refreshing. 



Grouse are difficult to be netted, owing to the straggled manner 

 in which they lie, and their scattering on the approach of the 

 sportsman, at the least noise. Two or three brace are the irost that 

 can be taken at a time in this way, and very seldom so many. 



Burning heath on the mountains, as it is done chiefly in the 

 spring, is very destructive to grouse, for by this means numbers 

 of nests are destroyed. There is an act of parliament against it. 

 If it is practised, care should be taken in burning, as, in a dry 

 season, with a high wind, it has not only set the mountain in a 

 blaze, but communicated to several adjoining woods. 



Deer stalking and grouse shooting are the favourite amuse- 

 ments of the native chiefs. Clad in the tartan and bonnet of his 

 clan, gun in hand, the Celt mounts his well-trained Highland 

 shelty, and ranges his ancestral hills. 



No species of shooting requires the aid of good dogs more than 

 grouse shooting, and in no sport does so much annoyance result 

 from the use of bad ones. The best dog, perhaps, for the moors, 

 is a well-bred pointer, not more than five years old, which has 

 been well tutored, and a veteran in experience. The setter is oc- 

 casionally used, but I prefer the pointer. The latter has un- 

 questionably the advantage when the moors are very dry, as it 

 not unfrequently happens in August. If a setter cannot find water 

 wherein to wet his feet every half hour, he will not be able to 

 undergo much fatigue. Some shooters use a couple of spaniels 

 for grouse shooting, in preference to any other team of dogs. Of 

 course, when this method is pursued, the birds are never pointed, 

 and the shooter must be on the look out, but the game is gene- 



