228 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



your keepers in the tracking of vermin, detection of 

 poaching, and other such matters, besides sometimes 

 lending willing and skilful aid to the management 

 of your drives. Moral : above all things be kind 

 and liberal to the shepherds and farmers. 



Mr. Wilson omits to mention protection against 

 poaching, though his moors lie in a country where it 

 is well understood ; but I think I can account for 

 this. I said above that good keepers always have a 

 good show of game ; and certainly his head man, Ward, 

 is an excellent example of this. A past master in 

 the art of driving, his is also a name of terror to 

 poachers, and in the security which so loyal a servant 

 inspires, Mr. Wilson may well have forgotten how 

 little his boundaries might be respected were they 

 under less formidable protection. 



In addition to feeding the birds and raking off 

 the frozen snow in winter, I would endorse what the 

 Mackintosh says as to the improvement of the water 

 supply by puddling up the streams, and making many 

 little reservoirs, so as to insure the birds plenty to 

 drink in a very dry breeding season, such as we ex- 

 perienced last year (1893). 



Vermin must be thoroughly kept down, and on 

 Scotch moors, terminating as they mostly do in high 

 rocky ground, it is no easy work to keep in check the 



