CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 75 



stand two or three guns shooting judiciously over it 

 from the 12th of August till the 10th of December. 



It has frequently been put forward that the killing 

 down of vermin destroys the balance of nature, and is 

 prejudicial to the well-being of game. 



I do not deny that this may be the case where a too 

 heavy stock of game is kept up ; but on ordinary 

 moors, where the ground is properly shot over, the 

 vermin must be kept down, or that very balance of 

 nature, which so delights the theorists to talk about, 

 would soon be lost. 



Some years back I hired a moor in Perthshire, where 

 the vermin had been allowed to multiply unchecked, 

 and all precautions for the welfare of the Grouse had 

 been neglected. 



The first season I rented the ground the four best 

 beats did not yield an average of above fifteen brace 

 the first day that they were each shot over ; after this, 

 the average fell to about seven brace a day. This was 

 for two guns. After three years' trapping and care- 

 fully looking after the ground, one gun was able to 

 average forty-five brace of Grouse a day for the first 

 ten days' shooting, without counting two or three 

 hundred head of other game. 



In conjunction with the vermin- trapping, I consider 

 that the improvement was mainly due to my making a 

 point of observing the two following rules : 



(1) Always to kill down the single old cock Grouse 

 when and where I could.* 



* I myself treated them as vermin, and shot them for two 

 or three months after the close of the season. This I am afraid 

 some people might consider highly improper. 



