302 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



hunted at a time, and the grouse gillie ought to follow a 

 long way in the rear. 



Every favourable day till the 10th of December a tolerable 

 bag of grouse can be made, eked out by snipe, hares, plover, 

 and now and then a moor woodcock or two. In counting 

 over my grouse at the end of each day, I generally found that 

 at least half of them were old cocks, red as chestnuts, and 

 unless kept in the larder for three weeks, tough as leather ! 

 So certainly did those tyrants of the moor form the staple of 

 the day's sport, that when starting in the morning, the shooter's 

 brief notice, " I am going after old cocks," was well under- 

 stood. 



If the ground is extensive, four or five guns, each accom- 

 panied by a steady dog and gillie, and keeping far enough 

 apart not to interfere with each other, may range an immense 

 tract of moorland ; and I will venture to assert, that by this 

 method far more wild old birds will be bagged than by driv- 

 ing, and the ground be not half as much disturbed. As par- 

 tridge never break their coveys till pairing-time, the above 

 remarks have no reference to them. 



Some time ago I noticed in a leading London periodical, 

 that the writer of a sporting article maintained that two-thirds 

 of the bag of all driving-parties were old birds. Taking it for 

 granted that the absurdity of such an assertion would soon 

 refute itself in the experience of all true sportsmen, I took no 

 notice of it at first. On the contrary, however, it was taken 

 as an axiom by many minor lights, who founded upon it strong 

 arguments in favour of grouse-driving. It never seemed to 

 occur to these advocates for driving to make any difference 

 between good and bad breeding seasons, which slovenly inad- 

 vertence might teach the value of their theories. Some 

 years ago, after an ungenial spring had destroyed the eggs 

 and young broods, an old sportsman wrote to me that his 

 " Twelfth " bag (over dogs) was 40 brace, but there were only 

 three young birds among the eighty ! Of course the driving- 



