BED GROUSE.
LAOOPVS SCOTICVS.
Tun moors furnishing the beat lings, and the counties in which this species may be limited for, are so
well known In the majority of s|Hjrlsiucn and naturalist- that it is unnecessary in these pages to enter into
particulars concerning the distribution or this popular game bird throughout the British Islands.
With regard to the disease which has completely puzzled the most scientific authorities, as well as
those who have passed their lives on the hill-sides, one fact alone is certain, viz., that we ore as far off as
ever from discovering either the cause or a remedy for the scourge, which seems to make periodical ravages
over the moors, attacking the birds with as much severity on ranges where only n few scattered packs
are to be found ns on the most prolific beats. Grouse, I am convinced, would retain their health lunger
and better if the moors were mure evenly shot over. In many parts, and frequently when the birds
are most abundant, the slaughter is merely carried on for a few days at the commeucotnenl of the season,
whilst the ground could well stand two or three guns shooting judiciously over the Iieals from the 12th of
August till the 10th of December. It has frequently been declared that the killing down of vermin destroys
the linlance of Nature and is prejudicial to the well-being of game I do not deny that Ibis may he the
case where a too heavy stock of game is kept up ; hut oa ordinary moors, where the ground is properly
shut over, the vermin must be kept down, or the very balance of Nature, which so delights the theorist to
talk about, would soon be lost.
My own experience concerning the management of Grouse-shoot nigs has only been acquired on moors
where the rental was small, the more extensive and well-known ranges being entirely beyond my roach.
Borne years back 1 hired a moor in Perthshire where the vermin had been allowed to multiply almost
unchecked, and but few precautions taken lu ensure the welfare of the Grouse. At the commencement of
the season of 16U3 the two best bags for a couple of guns wore merely 17 and Hi brace of Grouse. In
1SG7 one gun was enabled to average above 111 brace a day for the first ten days' shooting, without counting
two or three hundred head of other game, the two best liags being "2 and ol) brace. In conjunction with
vermin-trapping, I consider the improvement was •millJ due to scouring the assistance of the shepherds
and inducing them to aid in raising the slock of game; the killing down of the single old cock Grouse
that invariably drove and harassed the breeding pairs proved also exceedingly beneficial, i'or a couple of
years I treated those quarrelsome old birds as vermin, and shot them dowu for a month or two after the
close of the sea-on. In early morning shortly after sunrise they will he found strutting and crowing on
the slabs of rock or stones by Ibo hill-tracts ns well as by the roadside; in order to obtain shuts, a dog-cart
or a pony may he used with great success, if llie animals employed are thoroughly broken to the work.
While driving up the hill road leading from Glonlyon to Killin rarer* one frosty morning in Dccenilior lbOo,
engaged in picking off these pests, 1 was much astonished at the unaccountable behaviour of an old and
trusted retriever, often leforred to in these pages; the mistake, for which I can offer not the slightest