UNGRATEFUL BIRD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 714, 14 December 1933, Page 3

UNGRATEFUL BIRD

NO RETURN FOR ALL THE PUBLICITY HE RECEIVES. NO RESIGNATION. The grouse ^ an ungrateful bird (complains a Daily Mail contributor). You might think that, in return for the extravagant publicity he receives annually in the Press (including- his photograph in all th'e illustrateds ) , the least he could do from the Glorious Twelfth onward would be to resign himself gracefudy to the hei'e-

after. But he doesn't. What he does is to lounge about in the heather until a strong smell of Harris tweed warns him of the approach of the ig.uns, impoi'ted at enormous expense from England, preceded by some grouse-conscious dogs ealled "pointers." Shooting in Self-Defence. He then nudges his neigbbours, and with curious guttural comments the whole lot prompt'ly migrate into the ncxt parish. ' ,Some of the guns, fortunately, have studied this little idiosyncracy, and where, as on the shoot where I am staying in Caithness, the grouse are "wallced up" and not driven over butsful of major-general, the more experienced marksmen generaily manage to persuade two or three of them to .stay behind. These are then referred to as "The Bag." !Mjy bag on the Twelfth consisted of one grouse, which came so near me that I had to shoot it in self-defence, and several acres of heather. .The man wh'o rules our destiny is named Macdonall. He is the head keeper, and even the grouse stand to attention when he's around. He knows the moors as a taxi-driver knows London, with the difference that he takes the sh'ortest route to any given point. World's Rudest Dogs. To me the most fascinating thing r.bout this grouse party is watching the pointers at work. Judged on performance, they are the rudest cl'ogs in the world, spending whole days pointing. But without them you could never get near any grouse. As soon as he scents grouse the dog's whole body stiffens, and he stops dead in his tracks, muzzle pois•ed forward and upward, one forepaw raised, tail jutting out stiffly astern. iWihen the guns have caug'ht up with him he starts ereeping forward on canine all fours until the artillery is within a few yards of th'e birds. lAnother foot or two and suddenly there is § sibilant .whirr of acceleration accompanied by that curious croakirg nots llke a duclc with adenoids, and the air is dark with grouse. Almost simultaneously cornes the thunder of the ordance, several birds crash, others make forced landings, and the one I aim at gives me one sickening-leer and swoops intact over the horizon.