xvi. GROUSE SHOOTJNG (PART /),' INTRODUCTORY' 275 



of the one and the same amount of the other is the 

 worst possible arrangement, as the birds should be 

 able to run into cover from then: feeding grounds, or 

 the reverse, just as inclined, and they are then easily 

 found for the gun. 



Your moor should be well watered by small stream- 

 lets grouse will not flourish without water ; and 

 the sides of watercourses are a certain find for the 

 birds in hot weather. In fact, the ground should be 

 dry and healthy-looking, but supplied with runnimi 

 water, and on no account a damp, dark peaty soil 

 with stagnant pools ; and the heather should bloom in 

 profusion. 



Choose a moor containing low, smooth hills, with 

 plenty of slopes facing south or south-west, the longer 

 the better. A south slope will always collect grouse, 

 as they delight to bask in the sun, and, as a south 

 slope is invariably drier than one facing north, they 

 will visit it from a long distance after wet weather, 

 often leaving the neighbouring moors for the purpose. 

 Your moor should also have plenty of small hillocks, 

 isolated clumps of heather, and long rushes and 

 grass, as such are excellent cover for the birds to sit 

 in to the gun. 



A good walking moor should not have half its acre- 

 age taken up by mountains for such is not a walking 

 but a climbing moor ; and in sultry weather it means 

 that shooters, gillies, and dogs are exhausted by mid- 

 day, and with perhaps, as occurs on high ground, 



