78 THE MOOE AND THE LOCH. 



probably (unless he is beating up and down the hill, which is 

 neither an easy nor a good way) fly straight along the moun- 

 tain-side, and the young grouse-shooter might suppose would 

 drop down upon a line with the place they rose from. But no 

 such thing : the pack, after getting out of sight, before lighting 

 will take a turn, and fly a considerable way either to the right 

 or left. The sportsman must judge by the wind, 1 the nature of 

 the ground, &c., which direction they have taken : if he can 

 see the way their heads are turned just when going out of 

 sight, he may also form a shrewd guess ; but if he does not 

 find them on the one side, he must try the other. Should he 

 have the whole of a detached hill, even if a small range, the 

 birds are so unwilling to leave it at the beginning of the season 

 that they will often fly round and round until he has com- 

 pletely broken them : no finer opportunity than this for filling 

 the bag. Early in the season, when an unbroken pack is 

 found at evening feed, if the birds do not rise together, too 

 much care cannot be taken to search the ground. They often 

 wander a good way from each other, and after hearing a shot 

 will lie till they are almost trod upon. 



On some of our moors, grouse are as plentiful as partridges 

 in the preserved turnip-fields of Norfolk : no man would then 

 break his beat to follow a pack ; but let him select the lowest 

 and most likely ground, as near the centre of his range as 

 possible, for his evening shooting. Grouse, and indeed all 

 game, when raised, generally fly to lower ground, and when 

 they begin to move about on the feed, are more easily found 

 by the dogs ; for which reason the evening is always the most 

 successful time of the day. 2 



1 If high, grouse are very apt to fly with it, unless they have some stronger 

 motive to the contrary. 



2 Should the sportsman knock down an old cock and hen, and afterwards have 

 the mortification to see the " squeaking " pack rise all round him, my advice is 

 not to massacre them from the idea that, if left alone, they must necessarily die 

 a more cruel death. I know most keepers will say that the young birds would 

 starve, and I was of the same opinion ; but I began to doubt the truth of it some 

 time since, and a few years ago I had an opportunity of proving its fallacy. On 



