GROUSE SHOOTING. 



can seldom approach within a hundred yards of 

 them without resorting to some artifice. A pack 

 must be stalked, rather than ranged for. 



In winter, red grouse, as also black-game, may 

 be seen sitting in rows on walls and peat banks, 

 early in a morning ; when great numbers are killed 

 by poachers, especially when the ground is covered 

 with snow, at which time the keepers should be 

 doubled, and should be on the alert day and night. 

 Considerable expense is often incurred in watching 

 moors in August, while in December, January, and 

 February, the birds, when they most need protec- 

 tion, are left to take care of themselves. In the 

 winter months, grouse cannot be killed in large 

 quantities, so long as the weather remains open. 

 After a mild winter, there is generally an abundance 

 of grouse the next season a proof that their great 

 enemy is the poacher in the snow, and not the 

 sportsman in August ! * 



* In the winter snows, grouse are killed in great numbers, while 

 sitting in rows on walls. When the weather is mild in January and 

 February, they pair, and are then as easily approached as partridges 

 in September. It is then that the keepers are least on the watch, 

 and then that the cottagers kill the greatest number of birds. It is 

 true that a market cannot then be found for them, but they are 

 deemed little inferior to fowls when boiled in the pot with a piece of 

 bacon. 



