436 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



hard work so important in both. Many men of this stamp are to be found, 

 and even if at first a young keeper may be lacking in experience he will 

 soon acquire the necessary knowledge if he is willing to learn, and if his 

 employer is competent to instruct. 



Every effort should be made to foster the sense of responsibility in a game- 

 keeper. The importance of this will be admitted when it is considered that 

 during many months of the year the keeper on a Grouse moor is out of 

 touch with his employer, and, if he chose to do so, might leave his beat to 

 look after itself and to become a happy hunting ground for vermin and poachers. 

 Detection of shortcomings is extremely difficult, for no master cares to spy 

 upon his servants, and the sporting department of an estate is seldom if ever 

 efficiently controlled from the Estate Office. Keenness is undoubtedly the 

 basis of the sense of responsibility. If a keeper's whole mind is concentrated 

 upon how best to improve his beat very little training is required to turn him 

 into a conscientious and responsible servant. A young keeper should be given, 

 and encouraged to read, the best books on moor management ; he should be made 

 to give frequent reports upon details aftecting his beat, both for the employer's 

 information and to help him to realise the many points which require atten- 

 tion. A keeper quickly realises that his opinions are listened to, and is thereby 

 stimulated to experiment in new methods, and attempt to prove their value by 

 definite results. 



It is a matter of surprise to those acquainted with sport, many of whom lead 

 an over-busy life in our cities for the greater part of the year, what a number 

 The ideal ^^ Capable men, intelligent, articulate, shrewd observers, not only of 

 keeper. natural history but also of men and matters, are included in the 

 keepers' ranks. There are few owners of moors who have not liad the good 

 fortune at one time or another to have men of this stamp in their employment ; 

 men who are friends rather than subordinates, with a frank contempt for, 



or rather a complete ignorance of, the ordinary conventions which 

 sonai restrict the intercourse between class and class. Men of few words in 



company but with that power of expansion when the audience is 

 congenial, men who are eager to learn and to accept both new views and new 

 facts on every point connected with their profession. It is a real pleasure 

 for any one interested in animal life to take the hill in company with 

 a man of this sort. The habits of the dwellers of the moor, the history of 

 the locality, old-world traditions, the beauty of the surroundings, the customs, 



