68 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 



call, others a bramble stem which has been hollowed 

 out with a red-hot wire. The majority of those who 

 go out ' becking ' carry with them the stem of a clay 

 pipe, and use this as their call. It does not matter, 

 in fact, how the sound is reproduced, provided it be 

 communicated in a soft key and bear a close resem- 

 blance to the cry of the bird. Long and unwearied 

 practice in calling is the chief requisite for successful 

 grouse-becking, coupled with a quick and accurate ear 

 for sound. I have met with one or two men who can call 

 hen grouse almost as easily as cocks, but no one cares 

 to shoot the female birds. The strategy of the fowler, 

 then, is very simple. He has to call the cock grouse 

 up to him as to a supposed female. The bird that has 

 begun to answer him flies up and alights upon a tussock 

 of moss or other prominence in order to take his 

 bearings of the female companion which he wishes to 

 join ; the fowler calls the grouse at short intervals until 

 the bird arrives within shot. He then shoots him, if 

 he can, in the dim uncertain light which precedes the 

 arrival of the dawn. When the day breaks the grouse 

 cease to ' beck ' and begin to look for an early break- 

 fast. It is not a sport for a neophyte, but an old hand 

 often manages to bag several grouse in the course of 

 an outing. It must not oe supposed that this is 

 necessarily regarded as poaching. In Yorkshire, in 



