3oo LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



natural covert so common to the moors of Scotland, 

 such as the rocks, boulders, ravines, watercourses, 

 mosshags, and dense isolated patches of heather, 

 amid which grouse, when sought by a shooter and 

 his dogs, prefer to sit close to escape detection, rather 

 than to run forward and rise out of shot, as is their 

 custom on the level surface of an English ' driving ' 

 moor. 



One of the chief reasons why grouse driving is 

 so frequently compulsory in England, is the forward 

 condition of the birds on the 12th of August compared 

 with what is the case in Scotland. 



Naturally, the younger the bird the more innocent 

 it is, and hence the tamer and easier of approach ; 

 and from this cause alone grouse shooting may be 

 carried on in Scotland with pointers long after it is 

 possible to do so on those few moors that can be 

 worked with dogs in England. A large proportion of 

 the grouse killed in the Highlands during the first 

 week of the season would not be considered worth a 

 charge of shot by a shooter accustomed to the birds 

 south of the Tweed ; and when these late hatched 

 birds of the far north are full grown and worth 

 shooting, they will not, save in very few districts, lie 

 well to dogs, and from the mountainous nature of the 

 country cannot, as a rule, be driven. 



