RED GROUSE 221 



Wilson's Broomhead moor is the most free of any from disease, 

 and it is generally considered also about the driest moor in 

 Yorkshire. All moors are quite well enough stocked with 

 midges, but occasionally in hot wet weather they come in 

 clouds. It was so in the autumn of 1873, and it was so again 

 in the autumn before the last outbreak of grouse disease in 

 the Highlands. It has been said that grouse disease is always 

 present, and breaks out when the grouse are weakly and food 

 is scarce. These may be contributory circumstances, but that 

 is doubtful. In the hard winter of 1895 or was it 1896? 

 thousands of grouse died from starvation, but none from disease, 

 The different methods of killing grouse one year are 

 supposed to have a great deal of influence on the breeding 

 success of their collateral relations the next. Apparently this 

 is as if one said that an honest tradesman was successful and 

 had a large family because his brother the highwayman was 

 hanged instead of being beheaded. But this is only the 

 superficial side of the question, which is one of the survival of 

 the fittest. It is said with a good deal of truth that to drive 

 the grouse is an automatic selection of the old birds for the 

 poulterer, and of the young ones for breeding. This is no 

 doubt quite true, but at the same time grouse driving has only 

 been followed by enormous increases of stock in England, and 

 not in the Highlands of Scotland. The apex of grouse stock in 

 both countries was reached in 1872, and the question arises why 

 it was brought about by driving in the South Country, and, on 

 the contrary, practically before driving had made any head- 

 way in Scotland. The difference of effect of what was the 

 same system in both can probably be accounted for partly in 

 several different ways. Both " becking " and " kiting " are also 

 automatic selections not only of the old birds, but particularly 

 of the old cocks. This is easy enough to understand in regard 

 to " becking," but is only to be discovered by experience in 

 " kiting." It appears that the hens are not often shot under a 

 kite, and the reason is supposed to be that they are the more 

 timid, and make off before the kite gets near. Both these 

 systems were practised in the Highlands before driving was 



