METHODS OF SHOOTING THE RED GROUSE 243 



seem to delay matters until the thing gets right above them, 

 and then they too become scared, but dare not rise. Thus 

 they get kicked up and shot when the dogs can find them, 

 which is not always. When they are up, they twist under 

 the kite like a snipe, and are then more difficult to kill than 

 by any other sporting method ; for they not only have a 

 snipe's twist, but about double their own usual pace, exhibiting 

 what the falcon will show any day of the week that when 

 we think birds in a drive are doing their level best they are 

 in reality taking things easy. The writer has shot at driven 

 grouse with a falcon in actual chase. The grouse was seen to 

 be approaching some distance, perhaps 50 yards, before it 

 crossed. There was no time to shoot in front, and upon 

 turning round it was seen that both grouse and falcon were 

 already out of range, but there was a high wind blowing 

 at the time this happened on the " tops " at Farr, in Inverness- 

 shire. 



"Carting" grouse is a poaching trick, based upon the 

 knowledge that the birds take very little notice of a cart, 

 even when they will rise a quarter of a mile away from a man 

 on foot. The shooting is done from the cart. 



Shooting grouse on the stooks has only this in its favour : 

 it pleases the farmers. It is a butchery of those killed and 

 a waste of many wounded. But to hide up and shoot grouse 

 as they come into the oat-fields, whether uncut or in stook, 

 is good sport. The birds do not usually travel as fast as in 

 grouse driving, but they are quite as difficult, because they 

 come so unexpectedly and silently. To make the best work, it 

 does not do to trust to hiding behind a wall, or on the other 

 side of a stook, because the grouse are as likely to come from 

 one direction as the other. The best plan is to build a grouse 

 butt with the oat stooks, in order that the shooter may straighten 

 his back ; for nobody is so expert as to be able to shoot well 

 from a crouching position, although kneeling is just possible, 

 and most uncomfortable. 



Another form of grouse shooting used to be called 

 " gruffing" in Yorkshire. It was common everywhere, although 



