160 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



A favourite method of poaching Grouse by those 

 who still indulge a little in illicit gunning is known 

 as " becking." It is a much more sportsmanlike 

 business than netting or snaring, and is often use- 

 fully employed by gamekeepers in October and 

 November for killing off a number of superfluous 

 and very artful old cocks that stick to the higher 

 ground. 



When I was a lad I used to go "becking" with 

 a keeper nearly every suitable Saturday morning 

 in the late autumn, and have probably lured more 

 Moorcocks to their destruction in this way than 

 any youngster living. My companion was an ex- 

 cellent shot, and together we have on many occasions 

 bagged six brace of birds by breakfast-time. 



" Becking " consists of getting up very early in 

 the morning and reaching the deep moss hags before 

 the first peep of day. I have on many occasions 

 called a bird within shot before there was sufficient 

 light to see it by whilst on the ground. At the 

 very first suggestion of day-dawn Grouse begin to 

 stir ; the males fly twenty or thirty feet into the 

 air, and come down slowly with their heads thrown 

 back and their tails erect, whilst they utter their 

 resounding " err, beck, beck, beck," and alighting 

 on a "knowe," finish with a more deliberate " go- 

 back, goback, goback." The females utter their 

 peculiar call-note, which is much easier to imitate 

 than to represent by the characters of the alphabet. 

 It sounds something like " yap, yap, yap," or " yowk, 

 yowk, yowk," and can be reproduced by compressing 

 the nostrils with the index finger and thumb and 

 then emitting the breath in sharp, forced gasps. 

 There are various other methods of calling, but by 

 far the most successful is that of sucking quickly 

 at the stem of a clay tobacco-pipe. With the bowl 



