Practical Game-Preserving. 190 



almost desolate lands which are its sole habitat. Wherever 

 the improving hand of man encroaches, the moorcock flies 

 before him. It is not because the heather-covered lands 

 of Aberdeenshire, of Sutherlandshire, and elsewhere, 

 possess inherent peculiarities that they become acceptable 

 to the grouse ; it is because shepherds and sheepdogs do not 

 daily scour them, because the heather is not burned solely 

 to make way for the growth of pasture, and because the 

 many other conditions are not present which mark the 

 progress of agriculture. The grouse seems to have little 

 preference as regards the nature of a given moor, provided 

 its haunts be sufficiently free from intrusion, and present 

 the well-known characteristics of abundant heather and 

 dry waste land. It evidently prefers land of a medium 

 description, between the barren stony wastes where 

 ptarmigan may be sought for, and the marshy low tracks 

 of moor, bog, and young plantations which seem chiefly to 

 suit the tastes of Black Game. It must not be imagined, 

 however, that grouse do not lend themselves to some extent 

 to altered conditions of existence which may be forced 

 upon them. On the contrary, the labours of game- 

 preservers in introducing hand-reared birds have certainly 

 been successful in retaining grouse in the neighbourhood 

 of cultivated ground, and despite the presence of flocks of 

 sheep and their belongings on the moors. The successful 

 establishment although upon a small and experimental 

 scale in Suffolk must also not be overlooked. It is difficult 

 to specify the peculiarities which cause one moor to be held 

 in more favourable regard than others by the birds, but 

 there is no doubt that such is the case. The chief 

 desiderata, it may be assumed, are that the formation of 

 the ground serves to some extent to shelter the slopes prin- 

 cipally frequented from heavy inclemencies of weather; 

 that any rain falling be readily carried off, leaving a 



