210 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



powers will have full scope ; and should his bag be up to the 

 mark at the end of the day, he can feel satisfied that it was 

 scientifically and pluckily filled. 



In the above remarks I only allude to men who lay claim 

 to be called the tlite of the shooting world. A predecessor of 

 mine, in a grouse tenancy, candidly told me that he gave up 

 the moor, as he had to wander so long without a shot that he 

 was likely to miss from nervousness. I also suspected that 

 his kennel was none of the best, for during the term of his 

 lease he never exceeded four brace of grouse in one day; 

 while on the first 12th I shot over the hill, with first-rate dogs, 

 my bag was nineteen brace, and from ten to fifteen during 

 August and the first weeks of September. This gentleman 

 immediately took a moor in Perthshire, and the first day 

 bagged fifty brace. I cordially wished him joy, and felt con- 

 vinced that a prolific moor was the place for a nervous shot 

 with indifferent dogs. 



Few will deny that the man who habitually brings home 

 the heaviest game-bag has every claim to be called, if not the 

 best shot, certainly the most accomplished sportsman of his 

 party. To apply the test fairly, however, we must exclude 

 those high-priced moors where good shooting alone is required, 

 and stick to those second-rate beats where birds must be 

 searched for with patient skill, and shot down with dexterity 

 and unfailing nerve. The shooter who generally makes " the 

 score " on such ground would only rarely find his shooting 

 match with a fowling-piece all over the world. 



The seasons 1864-65 (the two first of my lease of Kames 

 and North Bute) were good breeding years, and the birds free 

 of disease on most of the Scotch moors. By the 12th of the 

 latter year they were very strong on wing, and, from unsettled 

 broken weather, much wilder than usual. My team of sport- 

 ing dogs was, however, most efficient, consisting of a brace of 

 very superior Irish setters, an old English pointer bitch, 

 admirable for close hunting, and a dropper (the cross of a 



