122 GAME BIKDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



not often seen her running in full view in front of the 

 pointing dogs, trying every inducement to warn her family 

 of their danger, sometimes even rising herself for a yard 

 or two out of the heather, and, when she finds her efforts 

 to make them take wing of no avail, dropping down again, 

 a piece of self-sacrifice which often costs her her life ? 



Grouse have but few curious attitudes which are 

 peculiar to themselves, their movements on the ground 

 much resembling those of Blackgame or Partridges. One 

 thing, however, which is noticeable is the dainty manner 

 in which they carry the tail during wet weather or when 

 snow is on the ground. They seem to have a particular 

 aversion to getting this appendage wet, and consequently 

 carry it high in the air, where it will not become bedraggled 

 and uncomfortable. They also erect and expand the tail 

 when fighting, after the manner of the Blackcock. 



Excepting in the extreme northern counties of Scot- 

 land, its adjacent islands, and the west of Ireland, unless 

 unusually fine weather prevails, Grouse soon become 

 unapproachable and shy after the first month of the 

 shooting. They are more easily influenced by changes in 

 the weather than any of the other game birds. On a wet 

 and stormy day the birds become so unsettled that covey 

 after covey can be seen moving off far out of shot, although 

 they have not yet, perhaps, heard the sound of a gun. A 

 covey that has been moved on a hillside will, in the course 

 of its retreat, give the warning to all others over which it 

 passes, and should it not succeed in taking them with it, 

 will at any rate give them due warning of the danger that 

 they know to be approaching and the direction from which 

 to expect it. The reason is, that on wet days Grouse will 



