GROUSE 133 



this it obstinately refused to do, save in feeble spasmodic 

 little puffs : however, in the course of about two hours it 

 brought the dead ones to within a stone's throw, and we 

 walked about picking up stones to hurl beyond them, a 

 proceeding that was at last successful, and we were able to 

 fish them out of course, just at the moment when a 

 strong breeze had sprung up that would have brought 

 them to shore in a minute. Being now highly satisfied in 

 having obtained the birds, and as our internal luncheon 

 bells had been ringing somewhat loudly, owing to the 

 vigorous exercise we had been taking, we proceeded to sit 

 down on the heathery bank ao-ain and satisfy the calls of 



/ O * 



the inner man. Hardly had we seated ourselves when a 

 cock Grouse, almost immediately followed by a hen, rose 

 literally out of the bent at our feet, and from a spot that 

 we imagined had been trampled upon dozens of times 

 during the last three hours. The keeper was as much 

 astonished as myself at the extraordinary tameness or 

 inaction displayed. 



The flying -powers of Grouse, although at times 

 extremely rapid, are far inferior in point of endurance to 

 either Blackgame or Capercaillie. They seldom cover 

 distances exceeding two miles at one stretch, unless 

 unusually harassed in stormy weather, or scared from 

 their ground by Hawks or the artificial Kite. The usual 

 length of a Grouse's flight ranges from a quarter to three- 

 quarters of a mile, depending entirely of course on the 

 nature of the ground over which they are passing, being 

 as a rule much shorter on heather flats, where they have 

 numerous and agreeable resting-places, than on broken 

 ground and rocky hill-faces. In a discussion which took 



o */ 



