STOCK 421 



shot, and by the end of the shooting season no stroke of fortune 

 can avert the risk of disease. 



In the case of the let moor in a big year the situation is even 

 more serious. In the first place, the lessee has less favourable 

 opportunities than the owner for obtaining information as 

 to the prospects of the season ; in the second place, he has 

 even less chance of killing down his stock if they are too 

 numerous. He himself is often a fine shot ; but the same 

 cannot always be said of his friends. The close-sitting 

 bird of August 12th, or the reluctant " up- winder " in an 

 evening drive, may be killed even by the novice ; but once 

 the birds get strong on the wing, or fly with any degree of 

 rapidity, twisting towards the spaces between the guns, rather 

 than following an owl-like course over the centre of the butt, 

 a very different standard of marksmanship is called for. Such 

 birds appear to be immune from all pellets except those in the 

 very centre of the charge. If the lessee does not succeed in 

 thoroughly reducing his stock by early September there is 

 little hope of much being done in the later weeks of the season ; 

 he has probably no great acquaintance amongst the " hardy 

 locals," and he will fail to decoy his club friends from London 

 to drive Grouse once the Partridge season has set in. 



To avoid this state of things, of frequent, one might almost Early in- 



i ... -. . formation 



say regular, occurrence on many moors, it is necessary to adopt necessary. 

 certain practical expedients. The keeper should be instructed 

 to get about the moor in the earlier part of the nesting season, 

 to ascertain what stock of birds is actually on the ground, 

 and whether they are healthy ; he should mark down nests 

 on each of the beats, and report by the middle of June how 

 many of these nests have hatched off, and with what results. 

 The Grouse is a particularly hardy bird, and provided that 

 the stock is on the ground, and the eggs have hatched out, 

 it is possible to estimate with some certainty the probable 

 stock which will be available for sport in the shooting season. 

 Modern methods of Partridge management require that 

 the keeper should know not only the number of pairs on each 



