RED GROUSE 



GROUSE PRESERVING AND GROUSE BAGS AS AFFECTED BY 

 THE METHODS OF SHOOTING, PRESENCE OF SHEEP, 

 DRAINING OF MOORS, BURNING OF HEATHER, AND 

 THE BREEDING BY HAND 



1. AS REGARDS ENGLAND 



2. IN REFERENCE TO SCOTLAND 



3. IN REGARD TO WALES 



'"T^HEORETICALLY the stock of grouse ought to depend 

 X upon the amount of food present on the moorlands on 

 which they live. In practice it does nothing of the kind at least, 

 not if we consider heather to be the food of the grouse. A sheep 

 will eat twenty times as much food as a grouse, and if only 

 half the sheep diet is heather, which is giving them a larger 

 proportion of grass than they can get on most moors, then in 

 theory it ought to be that the clearing of one sheep off an acre 

 upon which there was but one grouse should result in an 

 addition of ten grouse to that acre. But in practice it is doubt- 

 ful whether it results in one single added grouse, or even 

 one additional to 100 acres. But this is not any proof that 

 the removal of sheep is bad policy. There are so many other 

 things that have to be taken into account. Whether the sheep 

 do harm or good by themselves is not certain, but in any case 

 the shepherding is very bad for grouse chicks that have just 

 strength enough to go a long way down hill and none to get back 

 again to the brooding parent birds. The latter cannot carry their 

 young like a woodcock, nor can they, like a Parliamentary 

 bird of fame, be in two places at once. The author has not 



