RED GROUSE. 
LAGOPUS SCOTICUS. 
The moors furnishing the best bags, and the counties in whicli this speeies may be looked for, are so 
n-ell^ known to the majority of sportsmen and naturalists that it is unnecessary in these pages to enter into 
particulars concerning the distribution of this popular game bird throughout the British Islands. 
"U ith regard to the disease which has completely puzzled the most scientific authorities, as well as 
those A\ho have passed their lives on the hill-sides, one fact alone is certain, viz., that we are as far off as 
ever from discovering either the cause or a remedy for the scourge, which seems to make periodical ravages 
over the moors, attacking the birds ivith as much severity on ranges wliere only a few scattered packs 
are to be found as on the most prolific beats. Grouse, I am convinced, would retain their health lono-er 
and better if the moors were more evenly shot over. In many parts, and frequently where the birds 
are most abundant, the slaughter is merely carried on for a few days at the commencement of the season, 
whilst the ground could well stand two or three guns shooting judiciously over the beats from the 12th of 
August till the 10th of December. It has frequently been declared that the killing down of vermin destroys 
the balance of Nature and is prejudicial to the well-being of game. I do not deny that this may be tlie 
case where a too heavy stock of game is kept up ; but on ordinary moors, where the ground is properly 
shot over the vermin must be kept down, or the very balance of Nature, which so delights the theorist to 
talk about, would soon he lost. 
My mvn experience eoneerning the management of Grouse-shootings has only been acquired on moors 
'' '■‘i ' 7'. well-known ranges being entirely beyond my reach, 
ome jears ac hired a moor in Perthshire where the vermin had been allowed to multiply almost 
r et:n o“; 8 fttrrTfr ‘““r * ot 
the two best bags for a couple of guns were merely 17 and 10 brace of Grouse. In 
807 one gun was enabled to average above 40 braee a day for the first ten days’ shooting, without coimtimr 
two or bree hundred bead of other game, the two best bags being 62 and 50 brace. In ooniuneZ tritl! 
vcrmin-trappmg, I consider the improvement was mainlv due to securin.. the assistance of tl,e 1 l i 
and inducing them to aid in raising the stock of gam;i the killing dor™ of “ ,e o d ock G 
that invariably drove and harassed the breeding pairs proved also exceedingly benefleiri For ^ 00 1 f 
years I treated tliese quarrelsome old birds as vermin and slmt flmrw i * couple of 
close of the season. In early morning shortly after sunrise they will br'leun^d Ir^t^t ^ 
the slabs of rock or stones by the bill-traots as well as by the roadside; in order to obtain Zots°TT° 
or a pony may be used with great success, if the animals employed are tboroucbly broken to 
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