342 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



where they are scarce, and that is nearly everywhere, they are 

 liable to become more so by the inability of sportsmen to kill 

 them at the only time of year they can be approached. The 

 man who shoots them during the first seven days of grouse 

 shooting breaks the law, but assists to save the race; for too 

 many cocks there always are, and the majority of them are too 

 old, and interfere with their younger relations in the breeding 

 season. This cannot be avoided as long as sportsmen make a 

 practice of killing the young birds over dogs during grouse 

 shooting. Until after ist September the birds of the year lie 

 close and to their sorrow rise singly, so that one has but to find 

 a brood and exterminate it. The old cock will not be with the 

 chicks, and probably the grey hen will get shot ; but she is more 

 likely to escape than any of the young ones. Consequently, 

 where the birds are not separately driven later in the season, the 

 preservation and shooting of this fine game bird proceeds upon 

 the principle of killing all the young ones and leaving all the 

 old. That is exactly opposite to the principle adopted for all 

 other game, and we cannot wonder that the race decreases in 

 numbers. Another reason for the decrease is that moorlands 

 are being more drained than they formerly were, and this 

 destroys the rushes, upon the seeds of which young black game 

 mostly live in their early period. They do not breed in the 

 woods, but prefer to have their chicks on the lower moors, where 

 they can find rushes, heather, and bracken. Whether they eat 

 bracken in its early stages of growth, as pheasants have been 

 known to do, the author is not aware, but upon the moorlands 

 around St. Mary's Loch, where there are no coverts, there used 

 to be large numbers of black game, and in hunting the moors 

 they were rarely to be found elsewhere than in the rushes and 

 the ferns. Probably, therefore, ferns as well as rushes are useful 

 in some way to them, although it may be because ferns are a 

 great resort of flies. The way that every young bird has to be 

 found separately, and each gives the dog a point (whereas the 

 grouse in most counties rise in broods), makes the keepers 

 treasure the black game for the dog-breaking facilities they 

 offer. They teach dogs to believe that there is always another 



