GROUSE AND BLACK-GAME SHOOTING, 81 



feeding-time ; and not having stirred perhaps for hours, the 

 dogs may come within a yard or two before winding them. 

 To procure shots at such times tries the mettle both of the 

 sportsman and his dogs. During continued rain, they are apt 

 to gather beneath the shade of a hillock, or in scaurs and 

 ravines. To continue ranging is mere waste of time, until it 

 clears and the ground has dried a little ; for, to say nothing of 

 the other miseries, the birds, even when found, will not run a 

 yard in the wet heather, and will generally take wing at a 

 long distance. When the weather is boisterous, they are very 

 fidgety and wild, even at the beginning of the season. It is 

 then easy to see who does and who does not understand any- 

 thing of grouse-shooting. Every inequality of ground must be 

 taken advantage of. The sportsman should crouch as much 

 as he can, wearing a drab-coloured cap, which will often take 

 him five or six yards nearer his game than the lowest-crowned 

 hat he can procure. If possible, he should always advance 

 from lower ground, walking up any cracks or hollows in the 

 moss. When this is skilfully done, he appears to the birds at 

 a greater distance than when they see his whole figure prom- 

 inently coming down upon them from higher ground. I have 

 already said, that if you have reason to suppose the pack are on 

 the side or at the foot of a steep hillock, only a gunshot in 

 height, the best plan to pop upon them within reach is to come 

 straight over the top ; but under other circumstances, this 

 should never be attempted. 



Most young shots are not content unless they are upon the 

 moor by peep of day on the long-anticipated 12th of August. 

 And what is the result ? They have found and disturbed 

 most of the packs before they have well fed, and one half 

 will rise out of distance, and fly away unbroken. Had the 

 moor been left quiet till eight or nine o'clock, fair double 

 shots might have been obtained at almost every pack, and 

 many would have been scattered for the evening shooting. 

 It will generally be found that if two equal shots, upon equal 



