376 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



Grouse i^Lagopus Scolicus), and Partridge {Pe7^dix cinerea). Other 

 well - known members of the group are : Capercailzie ( Teirao 

 ttrogalhts), Black Grouse {^Lyrurus ietrix), Ptarmigan [Lagopus 

 mitiits), and Quail {^Cotnrnix conmiunis). 



In many kinds of shooting one is rather inclined to think that 

 things are made too easy for the gunners, not all of whom can 

 be called good shots, and the size of the " bag " too often appears 

 to be the object of overmuch attention. It is clear that both 

 these tendencies greatly diminish the true "sporting" element. 

 The following quotations show that some sportsmen are inclined 

 to compare our own methods unfavourably with those of " the 

 good old days". Nicholas Everitt (in The Sports of the World) 

 thus speaks on the point: — "In England, in the old days, our 

 forbears were wont to sally forth in the early morning, before 

 the autumnal dews had left the trrass and underorowth, accom- 

 panied by their favourite pointers, setters, or spaniels, to double 

 the hedgerows and to hunt the commons and likely places for 

 pheasants, when, if they obtained as many single birds as some 

 of the modern school of sportsmen now require hundreds, they 

 would return home contented with their bacf and lot ". The 

 Marquess of Granby (in English Sport) speaks still more strongly: 

 — " But, nevertheless, it is open to question whether there is as 

 much real keenness about working for their sport amongst the 

 younger generation of gunners as there used to be twenty or thirty 

 years ago, let alone a century. A wild, rough day's shooting 

 does not nowadays apparently appeal to many. The large 

 majority ot gunners would not say ' thank you ' for the offer 

 of such a day's sport. It would look as if the deliberately com- 

 petitive system of shooting, which now so largely prevails — by 

 which I mean that very often the owner of one shooting -place 

 seems to vie with the next-door one as to the amount of game 

 he can kill off his property, and appears seriously annoyed if he 

 hears that anyone round about him has had an exceptionally 

 heavy day's sport, or one better, as regards numbers, than any 

 he can produce — has to a great extent unfamiliarized the rising 

 and just risen race of sportsmen with those days when hard walk- 

 ing, and consequently good condition, coupled with some know- 

 ledge of wood and field craft, were necessary if any satisfactory 

 results were to be obtained." 



The Red Grouse {Lagopus Scoticns) is a game-bird of par- 



