90 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



siderably more than the half of my day's bag on and about 

 that very burnt spot. Grouse will never eat old heather if 

 they can get young rank heather being used by them chiefly 

 for shelter. Heather should always be burned in small 

 patches, under the eye of a person thoroughly acquainted 

 with the habits of grouse. If greedily done, however profi- 

 table it may prove to the sheep -farmer, it is ruinous for 

 grouse. A moor treated in this judicious way will lose far 

 fewer birds after a dry spring-burning ; and when the heath 

 sprouts again, they will be much more regularly distributed 

 over the hills. 



As to the grouse disease, when they are got up to the 

 extent they were a few years since, an epidemic will be cer- 

 tain to thin them down, and may linger for years after. This, 

 in a small way, often happens to hares, when they increase 

 beyond a natural limit. 



The worst evil grouse have to contend with, next to the 

 disease, is the reclamation of waste lands. Black -game, how- 

 ever, have multiplied from this very cause, and only displaced 

 the former tenants. Capercailzie also are now spreading far 

 and wide in spite of little encouragement. Some years ago, 

 two Perthshire proprietors told me they had killed nine and 

 five in a day on their respective estates. The inroads of the 

 cock of the wood are often not very welcome, as they drive off 

 all other winged game and spoil the trees. 



The ingenious devices of grouse-destroyers for the market 

 are now met by equally able tactics on the part of modern 

 moor- watchers. It is surprising how easily the least signs of 

 netting, snaring, pinioning the poults, &c., &c., are detected by 

 an energetic, conscientious head -keeper and his subs. One 

 sympathises with the wonder of the French sportsman, when 

 he demanded of the burly game-protector, " How it was pos- 

 sible to pickle these mountains ? " " We pickle naething 

 but sawmon here," was the grinning reply. " I know better ; 

 you peekle your deer and grouse as strongly as your salmon." 



