102 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



Yorkshire ; 1000 brace were killed in one day at Studley 

 Royal, 1100 brace at Wemmergill, and, to crown all, the 

 highest yet recorded bag of grouse in one day, viz. 1313 

 brace, was made at MivRimington. Wilson's moor of Brom- 

 head in the Sheffield district. 



During the same fortnight, 10,454 grouse were killed in 

 ten days' shooting at High Force ; while at Bolton Abbey, 

 for eighteen consecutive days, the average of grouse killed 

 per diem was within a fraction of 300 brace. These figures 

 sound like romance; yet their writer vouches for the 

 accuracy of them all, and they are well known to be correct 

 by those versed in the figures of northern moors. 



The Scotch moors in the same years yielded phenomenal 

 results. 



By way of comparison, let us take an instance or two 

 from the Yorkshire records of this year. On Danby moors, 

 belonging to Lord Downe, after killing 600 brace over dogs, 

 900 brace were killed in three days' driving. On Wemmer- 

 gill, Sir Frederick Milbank and party, six guns in all, slew 

 in six days 4523 grouse, or an average of 376 brace a day. 

 At Bromhead, in the early part of September, over 600 brace 

 were killed in one day. 



These figures, it will be noted, are but for a few estates. 

 The produce in grouse of even a single Scottish shire is. 

 infinitely greater, and represents a very considerable amount 

 of human food. " But," says the illogical stump orator, 

 "it is food only consumed by one class." To this it should 

 be said that, philosophically, the class who can afford to eat 

 game, by doing so sets free other less expensive food for 

 another section of the public. 



But it is the influx of visitors, the trade, and the briskness 

 they bring with them that must be chiefly held to benefit 

 the highlands, and socially justify the devoting of wide 

 wastes to the muir-fowl. Let it be always remembered, and 

 the evidence is at hand in Government Reports, that the- 

 farmers, large and small, of the great English game-rearing 



