63 



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 carefully 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. * 



(2) Always to be on good terms with the 

 farmers and (more particularly) with the shepherds. 



When it is considered that a shepherd is over 

 the ground nearly every day in the year,f and, if 

 so inclined, can report anything going wrong,;}; the 

 advantage of making an ally of him will, I think, 

 be easily recognised. 



* 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. 



f Which, with the numerous duties he has to attend to, can certainly 

 not be expected of even the most energetic of game-keepers. 



Which he certainly will, if he knows it is to his own advantage. 



