CHAPTER THREE THE GROUSE 



■we killed a blackcock and hen, and at last got to the end of 

 our walk with fifteen brace of grouse, five black game, one 

 mallard, a snipe, a woodcock, two teal, and two hares; and 

 right glad was I to ease my shoulder of that portion of the 

 game which I carried to help Donald, who would at any 

 time have preferred assistingme to stalk a red deer than to 

 kill and carry grouse. Although my day's sport did not 

 amount to any great number, the variety of game, and the 

 beautiful and wild scenery I had passed through, made me 

 enjoy it more than if I had been shooting in the best and 

 easiest muir in Scotland, and killing fifty or sixty brace of 

 birds. 



In preserving and increasing a stock of grouse, the first 

 thing is to kill the vermin of every kind, and none more 

 carefully than the grey crows, as these keen-sighted birds 

 destroy an immense number of eggs. The grouse should 

 also be well watched in the neighbourhood of any small 

 farms or corn-fields that maybe on the ground, asincredible 

 numbers are caught in horsehair snares on the sheaves of 

 corn. A system of netting grouse has been practised by 

 some of the poachers lately, and when the birds are not 

 wild they catch great numbers in this manner; and as in 

 nine cases out often the shepherds are in the habit of assist- 

 ing and harbouring the poachers, as well as allowing their 

 dogs to destroy as many eggs and young birds as they like, 

 these men require as much watching as possible. I have 

 generally found it entirely useless to believe a word that 

 they tell me respectingthe encroachments ofpoachers,even 

 if they do not poach themselves. With a clever sheep-dog 



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