i8 9 



Red Grouse. 



know and to seek to inform himself as to the manner of 

 grouse-preservation, he cannot, under anything approach- 

 ing ordinary circumstances, be otherwise than wholly 

 dependent upon his keeper for the carrying-out of his 

 wishes. He may certainly touch the fringe of the science 

 for such it is and he may make himself thoroughly 

 conversant with the general principles which govern grouse- 

 preservation ; but it is the keeper who from day-in-day 

 out, yearly, long observation alone can gauge the 

 signs and portents which govern his every action. The 

 grouse-keeper, whether of the English and Welsh or of 

 the Scottish moors, is born, not made, and it is rare indeed 

 for a Southern or an ordinary gamekeeper to pass success- 

 fully to the care of a moor. 



I shall, however, continue to follow the scheme pursued 

 in dealing with other game-birds, and place as much 

 information before the reader as can be profitably given 

 in print without dropping into any of those theoretical 

 disquisitions so dear to the average grouse- shooter. 



The grouse is indigenous in all parts of the British 

 Isles. In England it prevails to more or less extent on 

 the moors of the four Northern counties of Lancashire, 

 Yorkshire, Derbyshire, sparsely in Staffordshire, and in 

 appreciable extent in other counties. In the mountainous 

 parts of Wales it is also a staple bird of sport, as also on 

 most of the great Irish moorlands ; but nowhere is it so 

 abundant as in Scotland, particularly in the North or the 

 Highlands, and in the large islands generally on the 

 Western coast. 



The reason of this abundance is not far to seek. The 

 grouse is emphatically a denizen of the moor, and it is, 

 moreover, a thoroughly wild bird, which, although amen- 

 able to preservation to large extent, resents intrusion by 

 either man or beast upon the uncultivated, unfrequented, 



