112 GROUSE AND BLACK -GAME SHOOTING. 



calm day at this time of the year ; for although birds 

 rise at a longer distance, yet their flight is so much 

 slower than during a breeze of wind, that the length of 

 the shot to Jiim^ in both cases, would most likely be pretty 

 much upon a par. Added to which, in windy weather, 

 they are apt to fly as twisting and irregular as snipe. 



In a breezy day, never range near those parts of your 

 marches where the wind strikes fair from your own to 

 the adjoining moor. If you do, most of the birds will 

 fly out of your bounds, notwithstanding every effort to 

 intercept them. 



The Perthshire grouse are much smaller and darker 

 in colour than those of Argyllshire. The west High- 

 lander is a beautiful rich red, and very large. Grouse are 

 never so plentiful on the west coast, from the wet springs 

 addling so many of the eggs. This deficiency in quantity 

 is the reason of the superior quality of the Argyllshire 

 birds ; it being a never-failing rule that, when ground is 

 overstocked, the creatures deteriorate. In the low corn 

 districts, such as Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and the 

 Border counties, the grouse are a very light brown, 

 borrowing a tint from the stubbles on w T hich they delight 

 to feed. Snaring grouse in these counties on the "stocks," 

 with wire no thicker than horse hair, is a very common 

 way of poaching. Forty or fifty are often taken at a 

 time, during the period between the corn being cut and 

 carried. All these birds are so light in the colour as mor6 

 nearly to resemble partridges. But .let us take the 

 mountain from top to bottom, and admire the wondrous 



