114 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



effort. Sooner or later patient strategy will outwit them, 

 and then perhaps a dozen Grouse may be seen, to the amaze- 

 ment of a new hand, carelessly sitting or running about 

 within fair range of his gun. Few phases of ornithic instinct 

 are more remarkable than the spell which this simple 

 stratagem exerts on so wild a bird as the Grouse. When 

 after successfully approaching a pack on the open moor, they 

 at last rise at perhaps some five-and-twenty or thirty yards 

 and a brace fall to the gun, one would suppose that then, at 

 least, they would realize the danger. But it is not so. The 

 charm remains unbroken so long as the gunner remains 

 close alongside the cart. Once let his figure appear in 

 separate outline and it ceases. The very fact of one or more 

 of their number having fallen, appears to act as an antidote to 

 the suspicions of the rest, and the survivors will perhaps pitch 

 again close beyond their fallen companions. These latter, so 

 the unharmed Grouse appear to reason, have only lit again, 

 and the noise of the gun being partly drowned by the rum- 

 bling and creaking of the cart-wheels, tends to add to their 

 delusion. Incredible as such hallucination may appear in so 

 highly developed a bird-form, I can state from my own 

 experience that three or four brace of wild November Grouse 

 are not infrequently obtained within a space of a few minutes, 

 and a radius of less than 100 yards. 



It should, however, be mentioned that the manner in which 

 Grouse receive the .cart varies greatly on different days. 

 There is no hard-and-fast rule, but, speaking generally, they 

 " cart " best in fine, sharp, frosty weather, with bright sun 

 and little wind. In rough, wild, or wet days they become 

 packed, and as a rule, inaccessible. But there is a wide range 

 in their individual dispositions. Some are always shy ; on the 

 very best of days, in the words of an old keeper, " there's 

 always some '11 cart none ! " and, on the other hand, one is 

 sometimes agreeably surprised to get a fair bag on what 

 appears the very worst of days. 



The disposition of Grouse to "cart" also varies in differ- 

 ent moors, or parts of a moor. As a rule they " cart " best 

 on the whiter ground, where bent grass, rushes, and 

 " spratt " are mixed with the heather, and of level or undu- 



