284 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



Shooting the old pairs, and the single birds the 

 latter being the old maids and old bachelors is the 

 greatest benefit you can bestow on a grouse moor ; 

 you then leave a good proportion of young ones as 

 a breeding stock. Besides this, the young birds will 

 nest much closer to each other, and thus produce a 

 larger stock to the acre than will the old ones, \*ho 

 jealously drive away any other breeding pairs from the 

 vicinity of their nest. 



If an old bird, or a pair of old birds, rise just out 

 of shot, and one or both drop again not far off, depend 

 upon it they have a brood close at hand ; do not 

 follow them, they are only trying to lead you away 

 from their family ; try round the spot where they 

 first rose, and hunt your dogs steadily against the 

 wind till you find the brood. If, again, two or three 

 young birds rise, and are shot, never take it for 

 gra,nted there are no others ; there are probably 

 several if you persevere in finding them. 



Bear in mind that you will invariably obtain more 

 shots at grouse as you walk uphill than you will 

 walking downhill. In the former case the birds will 

 not see you nearly so easily, and are generally loth to 

 run or even to fly uphill. If you walk doioi on a 

 brood you have marked into cover, as the birds can 

 see you plainly, they are ever ready to run with the 

 slope, to rise wild, and then to skim away when 

 flushed at such a pace that they are not always easy 

 to kill. 



