The Black Grouse Preserving. 139 



wise they will stay about the place where they were reared 

 to such an extent that when, next year, being fully grown, 

 they seek to breed and incubate, they will possess many 

 of the habits of semi-domesticated birds, with all the inherent 

 wildness of moor-bred ones, and so many nids will be lost 

 through the desertion of the hens. As it is particularly 

 necessary that black game, hand-reared, should not be turned 

 away till well able to fly, it is advisable, rather than confine 

 them, to cut the wings, first one and then the other, or to 

 secure one wing at alternate intervals by tying it up in the 

 approved fashion. The maintenance of a stock of black 

 game is effected by the same procedure as that necessary 

 to introduce a supply ; and an increase of the existent stock 

 is only to be expected if the birds be kept free from dis- 

 turbance, be looked after in winter, and be on a favourable 

 estate. In these respects a good deal of what we wrote 

 regarding red grouse holds good of the black grouse also. 



Black game are not much exposed to poachers, but there 

 are several causes besides vermin which may contribute 

 to their diminution. The burning of the heather is one very 

 fruitful cause, late hare hunting another, the hares and the 

 grey hens seeming to select, about the nesting time of the 

 latter, the same kinds of spots upon the moors for their forms 

 and nests, so much so that whenever late hare hunting is 

 countenanced, in districts where black game is plentiful, 

 a very large number of nests and broods are annually lost 

 through the disturbance by dogs, huntsmen, and the general 

 following. 



The vermin which are chiefly injurious to black game are, 

 for the most part, the same that destroy red grouse. The 



