278 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER xvi. 



If you wish to take a moor for the season, you 

 will not, I hope, do so till you know all about it, as 

 here suggested. If, however, you become 'tenant of a 

 moor for a term of years, be careful lo see that your 

 ground is not liable to over-burning, to supply grass for 

 stocking it with sheep. Over-burning may produce a 

 large extent of young heather and perhaps an increased 

 number of grouse, to sustain the reputation of the 

 moor and its chances of letting when inspected 

 by a would-be tenant. This is as it should be in a 

 ' driving' moor; but in the case of a moor for walking 

 it means much too little cover in the form of thick 

 heather for birds to lie in to pointers and setters 

 when the tenant has come into possession. The 

 second year of your tenancy (if no prohibitory 

 arrangement was made) you may find the ground 

 swarming with sheep ; and grouse and sheep never do 

 well together. The greater the number of sheep on 

 the ground the more will they rob the grouse of their 

 food by clipping off the shoots of the young heather, 

 the larger the number of nests will they destroy by 

 trampling them, and the more dogs will there be to 

 kill the young birds before they can fly, and even 

 after (to see a collie in full chase after a ' cheeper ' is 

 indeed a sight). Remember, too, that boys tending 

 sheep have a grand opportunity of egg collecting, and 

 that grouse eggs always command a sale in the 

 interests of taxidermists and egg fanciers. 



