Practical Game-Preserving. 196 



becomes a pool, and every gust of wind scoops the water 

 out of the holes and flings it over the upstanding tufts and 

 expanses ; so that the grouse of mature age are hard pressed 

 for shelter, while the young of all ages and sizes find it 

 terrible work to withstand the wet, and in bad places go 

 down before it in tens and hundreds. The necessity, 

 therefore, of choosing a quickly-draining moor is evident 

 to the most inexperienced. The essential character of a 

 moor may be said to consist in its unevenness of surface. 

 A very slightly undulating expanse of closely -heathered 

 land is rarely so much affected by the birds as one abound- 

 ing in abrupt irregularities, a good " up-and-down sort of 

 place," in fact, where the projecting granite stones are 

 found in clusters, surrounded by luxuriant growth of moor- 

 plant, and where the brooks and burns are plentiful. In 

 the more frequented and cultivated districts a belt of 

 plantation, old or young, between the parts frequented by 

 man and the domain of the giouse, is not only a great 

 advantage but an allurement to the birds, although they 

 are not given to frequent wooded land. 



Another very important matter is the surroundings of a 

 proposed grouse-moor. It may be very well to acquire a 

 tract of land, and say you are going to rear grouse, &c. ; 

 but when your neighbours happen to be sheep or cattle 

 farmers, with a host of active stock on all sides, and for 

 ever straying on it, or crossing it, or being driven at a 

 wild gallop out of it, the matter assumes another aspect. 

 It is not possible to have a wall to keep them out, and it 

 follows that unless neighbours are agreeable, grouse-rear- 

 ing is out of the question. The best advice to anyone 

 wanting a moor is to acquire one in a part where grouse- 

 rearing and preserving and shooting are the only business. 

 It may involve a tedious wait, but sooner or later one is 

 sure to drop on the right thing in the right place, and if it 



