GROUSE-SHOOTING IN MAYO 



I stop to have a look at them, resting on a stone some 

 three or four minutes. As I move forward again to 

 meet Pat and the dog, a fine pack of a dozen grouse get 

 up just in front of me. It is an easy right and left, and 

 two grouse hit the heather. Lawn is close at hand, 

 watching the shot, and the birds are speedily recovered. 

 This pack had been lying closely indeed — within thirty 

 yards of where the sheep were grazing and of my own 

 presence. 



Pat's spirits, which had been somewhat depressed 

 at the ill success of the morning, are now rising 

 again. In no great while, thanks to Lawn's care and 

 excellent nose, we light again upon the remains of 

 the first pack fired at. There are five birds, and they 

 scatter widely as they rise. The first bird falls readily 

 enough — a straight shot. But I have to swing round 

 well to the left for the second barrel, and the grouse is 

 all but disappearing behind the angle of the hill before 

 I drop him, a long shot, at more than fifty yards. 

 " The best shootin' in Connaught ! " cries Pat enthusi- 

 astically, as the right and left thus comes off for the 

 third time. As a very moderate performer with the 

 ** scatter-gun," I am inclined to attribute Pat's en- 

 comium more to his own success in at length finding 

 grouse than to my own merits. In another five minutes 

 yet another brace are added to the bag. We push on, 

 but our streak of luck has come and fled. The big 

 pack has gone right away, and we are not successful in 

 finding others as we descend. 



A long way down the mountain, on the way to the 

 lodge, we pick up D. again. He has had but poor 

 fortune, and has but a brace of grouse and a mountain- 

 hare to add to the bag, which now totals eight and a 

 half brace of grouse and the one hare. Our shooting- 

 day on this occasion is a short one, and we now push on 



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