446 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AM) IN DISEASE 



be will snap oflf the heads of a dozen fowls without carrying off a bird ; at 

 other times he will carefully bury his victims, and as often as not fail to 

 return to their fragrant and probably well-" trapped " remains. Stories are 

 told of the relics of a dozen Grouse killed in the nesting season, and found 

 in various stages of decomposition in or near a fox's " earth." ^ 



It is easy to see that every effort should be made to rid the moor of an 

 offender with such an established reputation for evil. The methods advocated 

 for his destruction are many, including some of doubtful legitimacy in which 

 strychnine plays a not unimportant part. Of the methods more generally 

 recognised, " trapping " a recent kill, spooring in the snow, watching the den 

 at cubbing time, may be enumerated. In Scotland the "fox-hunter," a 

 o-entleman clad not in scarlet but in fustian, is sometimes requisitioned with 

 a mixed pack of lurchers, beagles, and terriers, to aid in the pursuit of his 

 quarry ; sometimes he runs the fox to earth, more often he drives him to 

 where a confederate lies in wait to slay him with a shot gun. 



Foxes usually travel to a new hunting ground along certain well-defined 

 routes, which from instinct they know to be their appointed path. Keepers 

 are not slow to take advantage of these " trade routes." The mixed pack 

 is laid on to the stale line of a travelling fox at dawn, and the hunters 

 take their posts in well-known coigns of vantage, often with deadly results. 



Tom Speedy,^ writing in " The Keeper's Book," makes many interesting 

 remarks upon the destructiveness of foxes, and the best methods of reducing 

 their numbers ; amongst other devices he quotes that of placing a bait on 

 an island in a pool of water. A road or causeway is formed between the 

 island and the mainland, and on this road a trap is cai'efully concealed ; he 

 specially recommends for bait the carcass of a fox or cat. Speed}", with 

 other authorities, draws attention to the importance of never going near 

 the trap after it has been set lest the fox should scent the presence of man. 



The stoat, next to the fox, is the most determined destroyer of game. 



Living in old stone dykes, disused quarries or cairns, he steals on the 



unsuspecting Grouse at jugging time- — a short worry ensues, and a 



possible covey is abolished off the face of the moor. It is the 



habit of stoats to bunt in small packs, and when acting together, and in 



' In :i siiiirk- iLiy's walk the Committee's field oliscrver found tliree nests in which the hen Grouse had 

 been siia^jped up hy a fox, leaving the eggs scattered and broken, and a line of hen bird's fe;ithers to tell the 

 mournful tale. 



- P. J. Mackie, "The Keeper's Book," 7th ed., 1!)1U : T. X. Foulis : Loudon and Edinburgh, pp. 107-109. 



