xvi INTRODUCTION 



voluminous, and has sometimes been subject to such sudden bursts of activity that 

 it was found well-nigh impossible to keep pace with it. To this cause must be 

 ascribed occasional failures to acknowledge written communications by return of 

 post, for which failures the Committee now tender their apology. 



In the course of the investigation many technical questions arose which made 

 it necessary to employ the services of leading scientific experts, and, owing to the 

 difficulty in obtaining immediate and definite results, it was found that the period 

 of the Inquiry would have to be extended beyond the three years originally fixed. 

 The result has been that the Committee found it necessary to exceed their original 

 estimates. 



During the whole Inquiry the Committee has been greatly hampered in their 

 labours by lack of funds. The total income has never amounted to 1,000 in any 

 one year, and the work would have been in danger of coming to an end were it 

 not that many members of the Scientific Staff have given their services gratuit- 

 ously or for at most a nominal consideration. 



What success the Committee have met with is due to several causes. Firstly, 

 the work was, in the main, directed by small Sub-Committees who were unham- 

 pered by official restrictions and untrammelled by traditional red tape. Secondly, 

 the Chairman and the Secretary had the cordial support not only of the other 

 members of the Committee but of all those directly or indirectly interested in the 

 Grouse. Thirdly, the members of the Scientific Staff took the keenest interest in 

 the problems they sought to solve, and were willing to place their knowledge, their 

 spare time, and their technical skill at the disposal of the Committee unremunerated, 

 or at best remunerated at an entirely inadequate scale. Fourthly, the Inquiry 

 aroused a certain public spirit, which not only found expression in the willingness 

 of sportsmen, landlords, keepers, and others to do all in their power to assist the 

 work of the Committee, but led the printers, the firm which supplied the paper 

 upon which the book is printed, the publishers and many others connected with 

 the preparation of the volume, to grant the Committee the most favourable terms. 



That this Inquiry did not cost more than the small sum of 4,366 in the six 

 years over which the work extended (averaging 727 a year) is due to the causes 

 set forth above, and to the constant vigilance and unselfish insistance on economy 

 on the part of the Secretary. Compared with the cost of similar Royal Commissions 

 and Departmental Committees this sum is a mere trifle, but it shows that satisfactory 

 results can be attained at very small expense. Much money was of course saved 

 by not printing the evidence given at the numerous examinations of gamekeepers 



