GROUSE SHOOTING. 175 



ist of September, but after a fortnight is past, 

 they prove very wary. An old cock will rise 

 into a " high-cuck-cuck," double, like a 

 snipe, fly close to the heather, so as to take ad- 

 vantage of every inequality of the ground to 

 shelter himself in his flight, and very satisfac- 

 tory it is to lay him low. In shooting to dogs 

 late in the season, always look well ahead of 

 them when they have found game. A rise 

 will then be seldom got under forty yards, 

 and an instant lost means a bird gone away. 

 Probably the birds will rise twenty yards in 

 front of the dog, and about that distance in 

 front your eyes should be fixed as you walk up ; 

 if the birds do happen to lie closer, you will have 

 plenty of time to bring the eye back to them ; 

 but if they get up wild, it is of the utmost con- 

 sequence that both eye and gun should be on 

 them as they rise. 



Silence is very desirable in all kinds of 

 shooting, although grouse are less alarmed 

 by the human voice than most other birds. 

 Roaring and bawling at the dogs will put 

 every partridge out of a turnip field, but 

 will have little effect upon grouse ; still this is 



