SHOOT/NG (PART VIII\ 'DRIVING* 375 



ON KILLING THE OLD BIRDS 



I have written of the preservation of a moor, and 

 explained the absolute necessity of thinning down the 

 old birds, particularly the old cocks, every season.* 

 Driving will naturally do this, as to escape the drivers 

 the old birds rise before the broods, and fly first to the 

 guns ; but if from some cause there are too many old 

 birds on the ground, whatever their sex, in pairs or 

 single, obtain them early in the season, or you may 

 possibly not bag them at all once they commence 

 to fly in packs. 



The way to do this is to employ half the usual 

 amount of drivers, but a full number of guns. An 

 line of men, if they walk downwind, will put 

 all the old birds on the wing on a driving moor on 

 August T2, as, even at that date, they are wild, and 

 easily alarmed ; but the young birds will many of 

 them escape being flushed by the drivers, if the latter 

 walk wide apart, or if flushed they will refuse to leave 

 the parts of the ground on which they were bred, and 

 may thus be saved for further sport later on. 



* The pugnacious old cocks are the ruin of a grouse moor. These, 

 as is the case with many other species besides grouse, separate from 

 the hens and their broods when the latter are of a fair size, and for 

 time lead a lonely life by themselves. As a result, they fly 

 singly to the guns when a moor is driven, and suffer in consequence, 

 to the great benefit of the stock of birds left. The packs are at first 

 chiefly composed of the hens and their young, who in this form often 

 escape being killed, thus leaving a breeding supply of young cocks 

 for the ensuing season. 



