276 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAH. CII. XIX. 



iitiiiost height, on the look-out for any api)roaching 

 enemy. AVhcn the corn is ripe, and especially after 

 it is cut and in sheaves on the fields, the grouse 

 are very fond of it, and till their crops daily with 

 oats, like !^o many chickens, but before this season I 

 never saw them attack the gi-een and empty oats. 

 There was at this time a very unusual deficiency in 

 the growth and bloom of the heather, causing a 

 great scarcity of the tender shoots which form the 

 princi})al food of grouse ; and this may have driven 

 them to the new kind of food, to which they ap- 

 ])cared to tak(> ^ery kindly. 



It is in the oat-fields belonging to the small far- 

 mers and others living near the grouse hills where 

 the greatest havoc is committed amongst grouse by 

 the poachers, for there they can be caught with the 

 greatest fiicility, in any number that may be re- 

 quired for the market ; and it is more difficult for 

 keepers to prevent this kind of ])oaching than any 

 other, as it may be carried on by girls or children 

 late in the evening and early in the morning, the 

 snares being removed during the daytime, or on the 

 appearance of a keeper, whose approach in this kind 

 of open country may be perceived fi-om a sufficient 

 distance to enable the poacher to remove all traces 

 of his proceedings. Thousands of grouse are killed 

 in this manner for the London and other markets. 



