426 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



difficult method by which to treat the stock in the years of 

 recovery from disease. In a bad year the host and a few 

 friends may shoot over dogs and agree only to kill old cocks ; 

 they will be satisfied with a third of the usual bag if thereby 

 they can bring the moor more rapidly into good order. To 

 ask a party of guns, however, to drive Grouse, and either to 

 refrain from shooting at the coveys, or only to pick out the old 

 birds, is obviously impracticable. 



A great deal has been written, even by those in authority, 

 to the effect that driving per se does not add to the yield of a 

 moor. The results of observation do not support this view, and 

 in this connexion it would not be out of place to trace the 

 history of Grouse driving, and to study the results which have 

 attended its introduction in different parts of the country. 



Grouse driving was first introduced in Yorkshire, where, 

 owing to the wildness of the Grouse in that country, it was 

 found difficult to obtain a satisfactory bag by any other means. 

 Naturally the innovation resulted at first in an increased yield, 

 and this gave rise to an exaggerated belief in the merits of 

 driving Grouse as a means for increasing the productiveness 

 of all moors. As a result driving was introduced on many 

 moors where similar conditions did not exist ; in other words, 

 when the birds were not so wild as to necessitate this method 

 of killing them. On these moors it was found that driving 

 did not have the same satisfactory results as in Yorkshire, 

 and that in some districts the bags obtained by driving were 

 actually smaller than they had been in the old dogging days. 



Hence there arose a school of sportsmen who condemned 

 driving as an undesirable institution, and never ceased to lament 

 the fact that moors which were once good dogging moors had 

 been converted into inferior driving moors, for it is well known 

 that once a moor has been systematically driven its value 

 for dogging is greatly impaired. 



The solution of the problem is perfectly simple. On all the 

 moors, both in England and Scotland, when Grouse were natur- 

 ally wild, the introduction of driving was followed by an increase 



