FALCONS OVER WILD BIRDS 241 



person who, having taken a moor, and paid a high 

 price for it, is anxious to get all the sport he can, and 

 yet finds his birds well-nigh unapproachable, save by- 

 stratagem. Under these conditions, it is necessary to 

 use a heavier gun, and heavier charges of powder, and 

 the same charges of shot as before, but of heavier 

 grain, say No. 4, unchilled for preference. The heavier 

 gun is indispensable, for the reason that heavier 

 charges are requisite, and the weather is often too 

 rough and windy to shoot steadily with a lighter 

 weapon. Birds get so strong and wild that long shots 

 are very much the order of the day, and a toy gun is 

 unavailing. A good honest 7 lb. 12-bore gun, plain 

 cylinder barrels, not choked (I detest choke-bores), is 

 the best description of gun for such work ; and if it is 

 found that the birds are so wild, as to preclude their 

 being killed clean within a reasonable distance, and so 

 get away wounded, there is nothing more effectual 

 than the use of ' concentrators,' of which a supply can 

 be very readily carried in a separate bag, and these will 

 be found powerful enough up to forty-five, fifty, and, 

 if the wind is not high, sixty yards. Grouse require a 

 deal of stopping at this time of year, and their wings 

 are not so easily broken as when they were six weeks 

 younger. 1 have given such distances as forty-five, 

 fifty, and sixty yards as long shots, but I have no 

 hesitation in saying that, although snipe and such-like 

 birds may be killed at much longer range than this, it 

 is nevertheless a very great mistake to fire at a grouse 

 as far off as sixty yards, unless it has been previously 

 wounded. Even at fifty yards numbers of birds get 

 away wounded, not to be gathered, but left to propa- 

 gate a wretched brood of good-for-nothing youngsters 



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