METHODS OF SHOOTING THE RED GROUSE 241 



Beating for grouse with dogs is usually done by going to 

 the leeward end of the day's beat and then walking at right 

 angles with the wind, and turning into it at every march to the 

 shooting, or boundary to the beat. This, however, is a rule that 

 has to be honoured by its breach, in the hill districts particularly. 

 Thus, when beating across the wind means that one has to rise 

 and sink at an angle of 45 degrees every time, such a method 

 has to give way. It also often happens when a fair breeze 

 is blowing that to start beating up wind near a boundary march 

 means that every bird will circle round and be carried by the 

 wind out of bounds. Then the rule again breaks down. The 

 object is to drive the birds that are not shot into ground to be 

 beaten in the afternoon. This is best done by an up-wind 

 beat of the zigzag order when the wind is light, and by a down- 

 wind beat, starting from the windward march, when the wind 

 is fairly high, but not so high as to carry the game over the 

 leeward march. It usually happens that wind sinks about 

 four o'clock in the afternoon, or before. If this happens, it is 

 a good plan to draw off and go round to begin again at the 

 leeward side of the ground into which the morning birds have 

 been driven. The majority of the Welsh moors are so flat that 

 they can be beaten in any direction, like those of Caithness, 

 but the Highland moors are as steep as the Welsh hills are 

 before you reach the heather ground. After you are once up 

 in Wales, the walking is easy in all directions. The Highland 

 hills are very like those of Wales, but with this great difference, 

 the rises from the Scotch valleys are clothed with heather and 

 are the best grouse ground. In Wales this rise is grass and 

 fern-clad sheep farms, and often takes half a day's work, 

 counting work as human energy, to surmount before shooting 

 begins. For this reason Providence created the Welsh pony. 



The grouse have a very curious habit in the wet weather 

 of affecting the wettest and wildest parts of the moorland. 

 Then, and only at that time, you may find them mostly on the 

 flat floe ground, where every foot of peat is a miniature island, 

 and where there is no shelter whatever from the storm. This 

 is probably because the grouse do not mind rain upon them, 

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