GROUSE THAT LIE AND GROUSE 

 THAT FLY 



r I ^HE shooter who wants grouse driving and he who wishes 

 JL for shooting over dogs are by no means best suited 

 in the same districts. The distribution of grouse must be 

 mentioned before any just estimation of the causes of the 

 different manners, habits, and instincts of the grouse can 

 be formed. 



The birds have one special altitude which suits them best 

 in each locality, but this particular altitude differs with latitude 

 and longitude. 



Where the grouse are best served by high altitudes is in 

 the south-eastern border of their distribution. They are at 

 home on the top of the Peak district of Derbyshire, and exist 

 much lower down. Farther north and farther west their best 

 moors are lower, and this goes on until in Caithness the 

 best elevation for the grouse is only about 100 feet above 

 sea-level, as it is also in Argyllshire. Over all the inter- 

 mediate country, between parallel lines pointing north-east and 

 south-west, the grouse are best served by an intermediate 

 elevation of moorland decreasing towards the north-west. They 

 exist in large numbers, but not the largest numbers, above and 

 below this elevation. This is generally true, and although 

 it would be easy to point to moors a few hundred feet out of 

 the theoretical best elevation that are better than others exactly 

 in it, there are then always local conditions that favour such 

 moors, and these are not to be found on the moors in the 

 better elevations on the same parallels. The moors of Dart- 

 moor and the heaths of Norfolk are both on the same north- 



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