WILDNESS OF GROUSE PROGRESSIVE 257 



detriment, inasmuch as, if the birds belonpfingf to it are 

 well broken up, fresh birds will visit it daily. 



It is necessary in such small shootings that the 

 heather-burning should be carried out judiciously, so 

 as to ensure there being plenty of young heather as 

 well as long covert for shelter, and good water should 

 be provided if such is wanting. 



In Inverness, Perth, and other Scotch counties, the 

 grouse are yearly becoming wilder, and — save in 

 Caithness, where they still lie well for the greater part 

 of the season — they will ere long be as wild as their 

 Yorkshire cousins ; the only hope for their not be- 

 coming so being that the Scotch moors are not so 

 bare and fiat as the Yorkshire, where the guns are 

 more easily visible to the birds. Scotland can also 

 boast of scenery, which is absent on the Yorkshire 

 moors ; and so there is somewhat more pleasure to 

 be derived from shooting on the former than the mere 

 killing of game, even though the use of dogs may have 

 to be abandoned early in the season. 



When I was young, dogs were in general use both 

 in Yorkshire and Derbyshire ; so that it is evident 

 that the wildness of grouse has increased since those 

 days. It is my opinion that it is only a question of 

 time for grouse to become equally wild everywhere, 

 and this is^ I am convinced, due to a disregard of the 

 preservation of the balance of nature, so far as it 

 applies to the extermination of birds of prey; a 

 certain amount of so-called vermin being absolutely 

 necessary to the well-being of game, and wherever 

 the birds of prey have been interfered with, over- 

 crowding and consequent disease has ensued, both 

 amongst the winged and also the ground game ; 



17 



