STOCK 473 



"The old hen also, who is beyond the age of laying, attacks any young 

 hen who may nest near her, driving her off her nest, thus causing the eggs 

 to get cold, and the incubation to be abortive. 



" It is well known that in deer forests where the great object is to get 

 rid of Grouse, the best means to arrive at this end is to leave them alone 

 altogether. The result is that in a great measure they die out ; or at any 

 rate their numbers dwindle to the lowest possible point." 



So also Mackintosh of Mackintosh makes the following statement : 



A " matter of vital importance is the killing down of old cocks. 2 



" Another trouble results from the presence of these useless old cocks, namely, 

 over-sitting. Probably if one chicken hatches the mother leaves the rest of the 

 eggs, and so though the brood is lost it cannot often end in the bird's death. 

 But when a whole nestful of unfertile eggs has been laid the hen may continue 

 to sit long after the time when a brood of chickens should have appeared, and 

 may even be found on her eggs dead from exhaustion and disease." 



All the views expressed above are fully endorsed by the Committee. There 

 is no doubt that old birds are a danger to a moor, and tend to the degeneration 

 of the stock, for not only are they more pugnacious than the younger birds, but 

 they do not produce such large coveys nor such robust offspring. 



All moor-owners who take an interest in the improvement of their stock 

 make it a rule to ascertain as nearly as possible the proportion of 



Proportion 



young birds to old upon their ground, and whenever they succeed in of old birds 

 reducing the proportion of old birds the stock is found to improve. 



One of the Committee's correspondents has made a series of observations 

 upon a moor in Inverness-shire extending over a period of thirteen years. His 

 analysis of the Grouse stocks and relative bags is so interesting that the 

 Committee have obtained his permission to publish it in this Report as an 

 example of how stock may be recorded for purposes of comparison. The 

 analysis will be found on p. 474, and in the letter which accompanied it the 

 following passages occur. 



" I now enclose table showing nearly all the information I have as to 

 old and young birds for a series of thirteen years. 



" As nearly as possible the moor has been shot in much the same way, 

 and the same keeper has been in charge the whole time. 



"An effort has always been made to bag as many old birds as possible 



1 Fur and Feather Series, " The Grouse " p. 148. 2 Ibid. p. 157. 



