STOCK 431 



profitable that they should be shot by himself than that they 

 should go to swell the bag of his neighbour ; whereas if they are 

 destined to become the victims of disease they may never 

 come back at all, or if they do they may return as a decimated 

 pest-ridden stock, quite unfit for the task of reproducing their 

 species. In the same way the owner of a low-ground moor, 

 where the Grouse have come to winter in their thousands, 

 sometimes argues that it matters little what number of birds 

 may be upon his ground in the winter, since they will return 

 to their own higher moors for the nesting season, and will leave 

 behind them a moderate breeding stock. These owners seem 

 to overlook the fact that the presence of an excessive stock 

 during the winter will most probably result in wholesale mortality 

 amongst those that are left behind, however reduced this 

 remnant may be. 



The true explanation of the apathy of many moor-owners Temptati* 

 is that they have not the courage of their opinions. While large bree 

 admitting that in theory it is a dangerous thing to leave a big mg stock< 

 stock, they know that a big stock may, under favourable 

 conditions, result in a record bag the following year, so they 

 take their chance, unmindful of the risk they run, with the 

 result that a good season, which might be followed by another 

 just as good, often becomes the starting-point of a series of 

 disastrous years. 



It may be laid down as a general rule that it is better policy 

 to aim at a high average of bags than to attempt to beat all 

 previous records by leaving a large breeding stock. 



Stock regulation in a poor season is a comparatively simple Stock 

 matter, and requires but little judgment ; no great risk is tfon! * 

 incurred by leaving the stock untouched, and there is not 

 much temptation to overshoot owing to the indifferent sport 

 to be obtained upon an understocked moor. Sometimes, it 

 is true, a moor may be overshot by an undesirable class of 

 yearly tenant who is more intent upon getting value for his 

 money than upon shooting the ground in a sportsmanlike way ; 

 but this danger can be guarded against by a strictly-worded 



