70 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 



set,' than he began to call. To his satisfaction he 

 was very soon answered by a grouse, which alighted 

 on a knoll within shot of his position. He took a 

 very careful aim with his old muzzle-loader, and his 

 finger was already touching the trigger, when, to his 

 astonishment, another gun 'went off and shot t' bird.' 

 Recognising the sportsman who had spoilt his shot, 

 he deemed it prudent to slip home unnoticed and 

 return to bed. A few hours later the keeper, who had 

 evidently expected to meet him on the moor, called 

 at his lodgings and proceeded to chaff the poacher 

 whose practices troubled him, with the homely inquiry, 

 ' What's matter thou isn't out this morning ? ' The 

 old hand could not conceal his annoyance any longer, 

 and he blurted out the fact which he had tried to 

 conceal : ' If thou'd been half a minute langer, lad, 

 thou'd have seen whether I was out or not ! ' 



Frosty weather suits the pastime of ' becking ' best 

 dry frost, that is to say, unaccompanied by any 

 serious fall of the temperature. It must be under- 

 stood that ' becking ' is not always successful even on 

 days that appear highly favourable. There are days 

 when the birds ' beck ' freely and others when they 

 will hardly ' beck ' at all, though no reason for their 

 acting differently on these occasions can be fairly 

 assigned. The champion ' becker ' of a certain fell- 



