SEPT. GROUSE -SHOOTING IN SEPTEMBER. 285 



I always find that the grouse are wilder in 

 September than in any other month. They are 

 well scared and driven about by the August shoot- 

 ing, and are not yet tamed down by the autumnal 

 frosts and cold. 



In this part of Scotland we have much wild and 

 stormy weather in September ; and many an 

 English sportsman towards the end of the month, 

 when located in some small shooting-lodge, in the 

 wild and distant glens of the inland mountains, 

 begins to think of turning his way southwards. 

 The incessant rain, driving pitilessly down the glen 

 where his confined and badly-built cottage is placed, 

 rivers turned into torrents, burns changed into 

 rivers, and the grouse unapproachably wild — all 

 combine to drive away many a southern sportsman 

 before the end of this month ; and yet October 

 and November often are better months for grouse- 

 shooting than the latter part of September. 



Here, in Morayshire, we have a more favourable 

 climate, and it is very rarely that there is any long 

 continuance of bad weather in the lower parts of 

 the county. Many a storm passes harmlessly over 

 our heads, to fall on the high grounds a few miles 

 from the coast. These storms of rain or snow, al- 

 though they pass over us, have always the effect of 

 lowering the quicksilver in the weather-glass, as 



