100 EEMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



grouse, three partridges, a cock pheasant and a rabbit. 

 Grrouse at this season are rather .dry unsavoury birds, 

 but of course very desirable as part of the second 

 course, from its being a vara avis. A thorough old 

 sportsman recommends that the best time for shooting 

 grouse in August or September, is from eight A. m. until 

 five in the afternoon, and from eleven till two o'clock at 

 a later period of the season. At this latter period, you 

 should shoot with what sportsmen call their grouse gun, 

 a single barrel that will take a heavy load, and the shot 

 should be two or three ounces. An old pointer, who 

 knows his business well, and will manage to head them 

 when they are running, is most valuable. 



The best chance of getting a few brace of grouse the 

 latter end of October or November is on a warm day, 

 for they will then sometimes lie tolerably well, parti- 

 cularly if the heather is strong. 



In 1800, a gentleman shot in Inverness-shire fifty-two 

 brace of grouse in one day, having never killed more 

 than one bird at a time. 



A system of catching moor game with nets, in the 

 same way as partridges are netted, has been practised 

 within these few years on the moors in Scotland, and 

 it is very certain that many grouse are ready for the 

 London market, taken before the 12th of August.* 



* One reason recently assigned, and I believe a substantial one, for 

 the scarcity of grouse in many parts of the Highlands is that deer- 

 stalking is now become a fayoiu'ite sport of so many of the sportsmen 

 who visit Scotland annually in the autumn. The chief object of the 

 gamekeepers who look after these deer forests is to keep them as quiet 

 as possible, that these animals may not be distui-bed. To accomplish 

 this, they set no traps to destroy vermin, and it is strongly suspected 

 that they employ unla^vful means to keep down the breed of gi-ouse 

 in these forests, that there may be no inducement for grouse shooters to 

 beat these districts. 



