70 GROUSE SHOOTING IN SCOTLAND 



(( 



very bad style "), across his 



straps are 

 shoulders. 



The surrounding country consists of an 

 undulating moor, wonderfully lovely when the 



heather is in bloom. The 

 heather serves as food for 

 grouse and ptarmigan. The 

 butts are made of low walls 

 of turf behind which one 

 hides from the birds. Be- 

 ginning a long distance 

 away, the beaters drive 

 them with long sticks to 

 which small flags are at- 

 tached, towards the guns. 



Grouse fly very low but 

 exceedingly fast; it has 

 been calculated that they 

 can attain a pace of over 

 thirty-five miles an hour. 

 They are scarcely within view when they have 

 passed. In their manner of flying they strongly 

 resemble driven partridge, and no doubt many 

 of my readers know how difficult these are to 



