ON SHOOTING. 175 



Predecessors/') Nothing paralyses an old cock grouse — 

 or an old hen either — to the same extent as the knowledge 

 that his particular peat-hag is blocked by a foe advancing 

 on him from either end, and you will soon find that the 

 destruction of old birds will show a marked result in the 

 improvement of the moor. 



You have already been cautioned not to start dogging 

 on a day which promises to be wet. Birds lie badly or not 

 at all ; are wide awake on dry knolls or bare rocks, where 

 they are not only unapproachable at the time, but also learn 

 the habit of seeking safety in flight rather than in conceal- 

 ment. The effect of each disturbance is both lasting and 

 cumulative ; further, the young gain daily in powers of loco- 

 motion, and the parents are daily under less obligation to 

 wait for their broods. Herein lies the necessity for rubbing in 

 the maxim " old birds first," not merely by choice, but as 

 an avowed practice the first time each beat is shot. The 

 brood anchors the parents. The hold of this anchor is loosened 

 each day by nature, i.e., by development, and still more 

 by man, i.e., by disturbance. Make the best use of it before 

 it is too late and the parents rise out of shot, taking their 

 offspring with them and curtailing a season already too 

 short. It will surprise you to find how well the covey lies 

 once deprived of the parental wide-rising example, and it 

 is impossible to lay too much stress on the double-barrelled 

 importance of this killing of old birds, both for the season's 

 bag and the welfare of the moor. 



I cannot forego an allusion, under this heading, to the 

 fact that driving is often recommended as a panacea for the 

 destruction of these pestilential patriarchs. Most generalisa- 

 tions are faulty, and this parrot-cry has been so often repeated 

 as to need some qualification. On many moors — e.g., those 

 situated in the north of England and the Border Country — 

 the stock of birds is so large, so early hatched and therefore 

 so wild, their wildness increased by absence of long heather 

 and hereditary flying instinct, that dogging would be a farce. 

 There are many other moors, by no means so densely stocked, 

 where driving can serve the purpose in hand excellently 

 well, up to a certain point, provided it is done early in the 

 season and with a few beaters, and provided no very short 



