219 Red Grouse. 



possession or erection of stand-nets. He has no right of 

 entry upon these poaching block-houses, and before the 

 Twelfth his only recourse is at law or through the police 

 for unlawful possession. The chances of an adequate con- 

 viction are extremely remote, and it therefore results that 

 the only means at the grouse-preserver's disposal are those 

 of prevention and the exercise of an unobtrusive super- 

 vision of the comings and goings of persons whose 

 behaviour may suggest suspicious motives. The watching, 

 much more the control of the grouse at this season, and 

 under the circumstances named, is in itself a most difficult 

 matter. The long flights the birds take are so extended 

 and so easily influenced in their direction by apparently 

 chance diversion that it is practically impossible to keep an 

 eye on every covey, or even on a fair proportion of them. 

 The only way to deal with this class of poaching is to meet 

 it on its own ground, or anyhow as nearly on its own 

 ground as you can get. 



By observing the centres of suspicion, by carefully 

 watching all such places for which the evening flying 

 grouse may for a time quit the limits of their own moor, 

 and by, if the expression be understood in its proper signi- 

 ficance, watching the game watchers, a great deal may be 

 done to prevent the stand-netting of your grouse upon your 

 neighbour's land. Of course the use of the stand-net by 

 the ordinary poacher, where he runs his risk and enters 

 upon your moor for the purpose, is a matter more easily 

 met, and one the keeper and his men should always be able 

 to deal with. The outside gentry do not affect these prac- 

 tices to any great extent, merely inciting to them at the 

 hands of others with a view to the acquisition and subse- 

 quent disposal of the game when the coming of the Twelfth 

 permits. 



The employment of the sweep-net by grouse-poachers is 



