IN FOREST AND ON HILL 253 



are agreed that it is aggravated if not caused by over- 

 crowding. As for Colquhoun, he lays it down as an 

 axiom that on no moors in Scotland can the birds be 

 increased with impunity beyond a certain point. 

 Over-stocking tends to generate disease, and contagious 

 maladies are not stamped out, as they used to be, 

 when every sickly member of a pack was sure to be 

 struck down by some hawk on the hover, or picked 

 up by the fox or the foumart on the prowl. Nor 

 does the genuine sportsman of the olden time care 

 greatly for what the advertisements style a "first-class" 

 moor. He loves to brings hill-craft and science into 

 play, and to see the dogs he has bred and broken at 

 their business. But where the coveys are lying thick 

 in the summer sunshine any novice who goes out with 

 tolerably straight powder may come home with nearly 

 as many brace as his seniors and betters and that, 

 it must be confessed, is somewhat aggravating. 



Whether the game be plentiful or the reverse, 

 the subject of satisfactory relations with the sheep 

 farmers and their shepherds is all-important for the 

 occupant of shootings. If you cannot have the sheep- 

 walks in your own hands and that is a counsel of 

 perfection for all but capitalists make a point, if any 

 way possible, of keeping on terms with the shepherds. 

 There are difficulties of course. The more jealous 

 the keepers are, the more likely are they and the 

 shepherds to strive like the herdsmen of Lot and 

 Abraham ; but after all, it is the shepherds who are 

 masters of the situation. They are out early and 



