blackntan

I forgot to mention, the snares were set on the actual corn stooks not on the ground and as the grouse fed on the ears of grain the head would go into a noose.

They had to be snared, shooting wasn't an option, one shot would have alerted the keepers and would have chased the birds back onto the moor and had the farmer or crofter been caught they'd have lost their tenancy and their livelihood. They were snared in the years when there were huge numbers, my old boy told me that by late afternoon mid September the stooks would be black with them and a bag of fifty or sixty could be taken, lifted under the cover of darkness. Just another example of the efficiency of the snare! Cheers.

I agree with Mickey, don't be too quick to ridicule someone's idea, I don't believe there's many creatures on this planet that can't be snared. It would need a bit of thought and ingenuity in some cases but I reckon could be done! Intrestingly during and just after the second war thousands of grouse were snared when they came down to visit corn stooks in the fields that bordered grouse moors especaialy in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. In those days it was a way in which some tenant farmers and crofters paid the annual rent or the local poacher could make a bob or two.