GROUSE-BECKING 75 



words, ' He thought he would have a pie when he got 

 home.' But how was the game to be stowed away ? 

 He had tied the sleeves of his jacket, so that they 

 were converted into bags, in which the birds were 

 nicely concealed. He then turned the coat inside 

 out, in order that the sleeves might not be seen, and 

 congratulated himself upon his cleverness in smuggling 

 stolen grouse. Mr. J. G. Millais unearthed an old 

 Highland poacher, who explained an ingenious method 

 of capturing both grouse and ptarmigan which is often 

 adopted in Ross-shire and Sutherland when the snow 

 is deep. ' The poacher discovers a place on the hill 

 where the birds are in the habit of sitting when snow 

 has fallen. To this spot he repairs when the down- 

 fall has ceased, and before night if possible, so that 

 the snow may be still soft and not fro/en. He is 

 armed with nothing but a bag of oats or corn, and a 

 beer or, still better, champagne bottle. Thus, having 

 nothing of a suspicious nature in his possession, he 

 would be allowed to pass, even though searched. 

 Arrived on his ground, he proceeds to make a number 

 of indentations in the snow with his bottle, and the 

 bottom of the cavity, just within reach of the birds, 

 he fills up with grain, and, scattering the rest of the 

 contents of the bag near the holes on the surface, 

 he departs, to return next morning and collect his 



