KEEPERS AND KEEPERING 439 



While it may be admitted that all needless disturbance is bad it must 

 be remembered that Nature has provided certain safeguards for the protection 

 of the stock at the most critical period of their lives. It is almost impossible 

 to flush Grouse at this season, and one may walk- all day over a well-stocked 

 moor without seeing any indication' of the presence of birds except by their 

 droppings. Any Grouse that may be flushed are usually cocks or barren pairs, 

 and the sitting hens remain undisturbed though the intruder may pass within 

 a few yards of them. 



Certain precautions must of course be observed, the keeper must avoid 

 all noise, and must not return again to the spot when he has marked a sitting 

 bird. He must creep about the moor rather than walk openly, and above all 

 he must not be accompanied by a dog. 



There is a growing feeling among moor - owners that closer supervision 

 during the nesting season is desirable, and need not be followed by disastrous 

 results. In another department of game preserving the nesting arrangements of 

 wild birds are assisted by such plans as the so-called " Euston " or " Stetchworth " 

 systems, whereby the period of incubation is shortened by removing the eggs 

 from Partridges' nests and substituting for them other eggs that have been almost 

 hatched under a barndoor hen. The results in many places have been most 

 successful in spite of the disturbance caused by searching for the nests and 

 transferring the eggs. 1 



When the keeper has been trained in accordance with conventional 

 doctrines his knowledge of the moor during the nesting season is often 

 very incomplete. He conscientiously marks down some half dozen nests on 

 the edge of the moor, and from these he judges the prospects of the whole 

 ground. If the nests under his observation are flooded out by heavy rain, 

 or destroyed by frost, he reports that the season will be a poor one, 

 whereas if they hatch out successfully his hopes run high, for in his ignorance 

 he does not take into account the distant beat which has been harried by 

 vermin, or the waterless waste in the centre of the moor, where no wise Grouse 

 will select its breeding ground. 



It must not be thought that the sole object of watching the stock during 



will turn out. This information is obtained by marking any nests that may be found by chance (nests are not 

 deliberately looked for), and by carefully observing the droppings of the " clocking" hens and the young birds. 

 As a rule this gamekeeper and his master form a fairly accurate idea of how the season will turn out even 

 before the dogs are run in July ; after this final test it is possible to prophesy the bag with some confidence. 



1 For a discussion of the " Stetchworth " and other methods of Partridge preserving see Teasdale-Buckell, 

 " The Complete Shot," pp. 246-256. 



