62 BIED-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



illustrated if one happens to be at the spot where a covey 

 stop after being shot at. One hears the shot, and, sitting 

 down, presently sees a straggling line of grouse top the ridge 

 and dip down the sloping glen. Suddenly one of them stops 

 appears to dive headlong into a patch of long heather 

 within ten yards of the ridge. The rest hurry on, closely 

 hugging the heather, and at the bottom three or four more 

 tumble themselves headlong into the covert, all scattered, and, 

 in their fright, apparently utterly careless as to how they 

 alight. Fifty yards further and down plumps another, then 

 another, till all have gone to ground. One sits still and 

 waits patiently, knowing friend " Siren" will be following 

 up. Soon he appears ; walks right past number one, and 

 numbers two to four, before his dogs have appeared on the 

 ridge. Then they rush upon the scene; take a few wide 

 gallops no systematic search, sine qua nihil perhaps never 

 within a hundred yards of the lowest birds. "Siren" 

 remarks that they " must have gone on ! " and himself does 

 likewise. Then one can pick up in half an hour three or four 

 brace of fine young grouse to close points, on the ground 

 where friend " Siren " has only had a long shot at the old 

 cock. 



Now, this is npt grouse- shooting ; but if " Siren " 

 happens to report his bag, he will probably add that the 

 " grouse are wild and strong on the wing," &c. No one 

 can fairly dispute his ingenuousness, for he is wholly 

 unconscious of having again and again walked right past 

 them ; and, if he also blames the scent, he is quite 

 innocent of his own ignorance in handling his dogs. 



One remark as to the habits of grouse. It may seem 

 impossible to say anything new on so trite a subject ; yet 

 Wellington was, perhaps, right when he said that nothing 

 is impossible ; for there exists a very prevalent and erroneous 

 belief that grouse feed twice a day morning and evening. 

 Mention the subject among a party of grouse-shooters on the 

 evening of the llth, and prove whether this statement is 

 correct or not. Grouse never feed till evening, but the error 

 alluded to probably rests on the shadow of authority which is 

 lent to it by the mistaken statements in print by several 



