THE MOORS. 21 



individuals around, which, to your surprise, if it be your 

 first rencontre, you see spring up one by one from the bare 

 ground. They generally fly off in a loose body, with a 

 direct and moderately rapid flight, resembling, but lighter 

 than, that of the red grouse, and settle on a distant part of 

 the mountain, or betake themselves to one of the neigh- 

 bouring summits, perhaps more than a mile distant. In 

 winter several families of ptarmigan associate, forming a 

 flock, and fifty in number have been seen together." 



THE MOORS. 



The capercaillie and the ptarmigan are both so rare that it 

 is scarcely necessary to allude to the ground upon which they 

 are found, beyond the slight notice which has been given of 

 each in the several descriptions of these birds. But red 

 grouse and black game constitute the staple of the grouse 

 shooter's amusement, and the nature of the ground which 

 they frequent should be well known before the young sports- 

 man commits himself to this kind of work. With the ex- 

 ception of deerstalking, there is no species of British sport 

 which so thoroughly tasks the energies of man as grouse 

 shooting, if it is pursued with energy and spirit; for though 

 it may be possible for the lover of nature to saunter away a 

 morning among the beautiful scenery which is generally 

 displayed to his gaze, without any great fatigue, yet if the 

 bag is to be filled, he must keep up a steady, unflagging 

 walk over hill and dale, and generally over heather or rough 

 ground of some kind, which will make him lift his legs 

 higher than is convenient to muscles uneducated to the task. 

 Now and then, also, he must expect to sink ankle deep, or a 

 little deeper perhaps, in a bog, which species of ground is to 

 be found on almost every moor. Indeed, it is from the 

 peaty and naturally poor nature of the soil that those ex- 

 tensive districts known as " moors" are not cultivated in the 

 ordinary way; grasses of a very poor description, heather, 

 and ling being their chief products, as far as the vegetable 

 kingdom is concerned. Independently of game, sheep and 

 cattle are the only stock which are fed on these moors, and the 

 proportion of these per acre is very small as compared even 



