Part 23

Lord Walsingham killed to his own gun in one day of 1872 421 brace of grouse when the season’s bag was 807½ brace; and in 1888, after a very bad breeding season, he killed 535 brace to his own gun in the day, and there were 919 brace bagged in that season. Similar proof of the skill of drivers and shooters when the stocks of game were but moderate are to be had elsewhere. The late Sir Fred Milbank’s best year at Wemmergill was in 1872, when he got 17,074 grouse, and his best bag was 2070 grouse. Lord Westbury, his successor on that moor, had a best day of about the same number, but his best year gave but 9797 grouse. Mr. R. Rimington Wilson killed 2743 birds in the day in 1904, but the season was not perhaps as good as that of 1905, when only 1744 grouse were shot on the best day, when Mr. Rimington Wilson was good enough to inform the author that the season was above the average, and that the direction of the wind makes all the difference. In 1906, the day, chosen months ahead, happened to be one of those heat record-breaking ones that caused the grouse to refuse to fly more than once, and only about 1320 grouse were killed on the first day, which, however comparatively bad there, would be absolutely splendid as times go elsewhere.

Again, in 1905, Mr. Wynne Corrie had his record season, but his big days were larger in the previous season. In 1904 they were 760½ and 781 brace respectively, and in 1905 there were 638½ brace shot on the best day. This is not as remarkable as the fact that in 1901 there were killed there 3341 brace, before big bags were started; and there were but 2103 brace killed in the year of the record bag.

The apex of grouse stock having been reached in Yorkshire in 1872, within a decade of the general beginning of driving, it was felt that the way to enormous stocks was discovered, and that these stocks were worth every attention and large capital outlay in the improvement of moorlands, but as a matter of fact it is difficult to find that all the improvement since has done any good to the head of game. If it has, it can only be discovered over periods of years, and not by comparing any one year with the results obtained in 1871 and 1872. The period of years is the better test if it can be fairly applied, but results come out differently altogether in accordance with the arbitrary selection of dates to begin and end these periods.

It has already been mentioned how wonderfully grouse have done in the absence of one of these improvements, namely the removal of sheep on the Ruabon Hills, and sheep are just as plentiful at Askrigg, in Yorkshire, where nevertheless Mr. Vyner has killed on a moor of 2000 acres, in 1894, 2775 grouse; in 1897, 2959 grouse; in 1898 there was a total of 2095 grouse; in 1901 there were shot 2686 grouse; and in 1902 there were 2898 grouse bagged.

Mr. Wynne Corrie has improved the best season’s bag at Ruabon Hills by about 1000 brace, or one-third more than the previous best. He has given the author four reasons to which he attributes the improvement, and as his is nearly the only South Country grouse moor that at once shows a great stock and also a great improvement over season’s bags of four decades ago, they are here stated:—

1. Leaving as large a head of breeding birds as possible.

2. Improvement of the heather.

3. Sunk butts.

4. Not shooting any grouse over dogs.

Probably it will be gathered from the records of bags made that the system of _only_ driving, in Yorkshire, has not increased the birds since 1872, and that dog work and driving afterwards has also had the same stagnant or retarding effect in Scotland, where also driving alone has made no improvement either, that when it could be said of moors that they produced as well as their neighbours, of similar area and conditions, under previous management. This is all very disappointing to those who give time and money to moor improvement, and sacrifice their shooting several years in order to get up the head of game. It is not pleasant to have to mention these partial failures, but it is felt that if we do not look facts in the face as they are, there is little chance of improvement. There is, in fact, a something _besides disease_ that keeps the grouse stock below a certain point in the best of years, and, as Allan Brown says, causes a little grouse to require as much land to itself as a cow.

These bags are not quoted, then, merely because they are records, but because they teach that there is something never yet found out that is infinitely more important to discover than the bacilli of the grouse disease. It must be more potent than disease in its effects of keeping the grouse stock down. For their numbers from a stock-breeder’s point of view seem utterly absurd. That vegetable-feeding birds weighing under 2 lbs. should want as much vegetation to themselves as sheep weighing 50 lbs. is the point, and there must be a reason for it, although it has never yet been discovered or even searched for, as far as is known to the author. But before dealing with that point it is necessary to show the present stagnation under every system.

At that period when Yorkshire grouse were only remarkable for their scarcity, Colonel Campbell of Monzie killed 184½ brace in 1843 in a day, 191 brace in 1846, and another bag of 222½ brace with no date mentioned. On the Menzies Castle moor, before mentioned, it was said the 1872 birds were mostly old and bred badly, yet five shooters obtained the following bags in the three first days, namely, 205, 117, and 168 brace; in 1905, an excellent breeding season, the bags were on the same moor 115 and 76 brace. Then at Grandtully, close by, the 1872 season yielded 220 brace to the single gun of the Maharajah Duleep Singh in a day, and in the first day of 1906 four guns got 35 brace. There were 7000 grouse killed at Delnadamph, mostly by driving, in 1872, when, elsewhere, there were no butts, as at Glenbuchat, where they killed nevertheless 10,600 grouse over dogs. Nothing like the above is done over dogs now, the nearest approach to it being at Sir John Gladstone’s moors, where upon occasion within the decade about 4000 grouse have been killed over dogs, and 6000 later by driving.

Unquestionably the best average in England has been kept up at Broomhead, the season’s bags of which have never been published, but the two best days in each season have been, and as records alone they are of great interest, even if nothing but facts could be deduced from them (see table on opposite page).

Bags made on Bowes subscription moor on 12th August 1872 were for 30 shooters over dogs as follows:—85½, 65½, 56½, 54, 49, 45, 44½, 43, 50, 40½, 41½, 41½, 36, 35, 35½, 35½, 35, 33, 33, 32, 32, 29½, 23½, 21½, 23, 21, 16, 27½, 8, 5½ brace. Total, 1099 brace.

This remarkable bag on a 12,000 acre moor establishes many things, one of which is that the grouse in Yorkshire could have been killed in quantities at any time had there been enough guns, so that the broods after being flushed by one shooter were quickly found by another, and given no time to collect after being scattered. But the wildness of the grouse on this moor is shown by the top scorer getting only about half the bag that some shooters obtained on the Scotch moors of the time. For instance, at Glenquoich Lodge, near Dunkeld, there were killed 124½, 114, and 88½ brace by three guns on the Twelfth; thus the three guns got 327 brace in the day, and this kind of bag was by no means unusual. In Yorkshire there were numerous bags of 1000 brace, and over, made that season. They occurred at Wemmergill, Dallowgill, Broomhead, Bowes, and High Force (probably); at any rate, at the latter place, there were in 19 days driving 15,484 grouse killed, and at Wemmergill adjoining there were 17,074 grouse shot for the season.

BAGS MADE AT BROOMHEAD

┌─────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Date. │ Guns. │ Brace in the │Brace in the best│ │ │ │ day. │ two days. │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Sept. 6, 1872 │ 13 │ 1313 │ │ │ Sept. 3, 1890 │ 8 │ 819 │ │ │ Sept. 9, 1891 │ 8 │ 630 │ │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Aug. 30, 1893 │ 9 │ 1324 │ 2125½ │ │ Sept. 1, 1893 │ 9 │ 801½ │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Aug. 29, 1894 │ 9 │ 1007 │ 1694 │ │ Aug. 31, 1894 │ 9 │ 687 │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Sept. 4, 1895 │ 8 │ 624 │ │ │ Aug. 26, 1896 │ 9 │ 1090 │ │ │ Aug. 25, 1897 │ 9 │ 1006 │ │ │ Aug. 24, 1898 │ 9 │ 1103½ │ │ │ Aug. 30, 1899 │ 9 │ 1013 │ │ │ Aug. 29, 1900 │ 9 │ 586 │ │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Sept. 4, 1901 │ 9 │ 712 │ 1447 │ │ Sept. 25, 1901 │ 9 │ 735 │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Aug. 27, 1902 │ 9 │ 693 │ 950 │ │ Aug. 29, 1902 │ 9 │ 257 │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Aug. 26, 1903 │ 9 │ 703½ │ 1188 │ │ Aug. 28, 1903 │ 9 │ 484½ │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Aug. 24, 1904 │ 9 │ 1371½ │ 1777 │ │ Aug. 26, 1904 │ 9 │ 405½ │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ Aug. 30, 1905 │ 9 │ 872 │ 1476 │ │ Sept. 1, 1905 │ 9 │ 604 │ 〃 │ ├─────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ 1906 │ │ 660 │(roughly) │ └─────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴─────────────────┘

Writing in 1888, Lord Walsingham said he thought that the great increase of grouse was to be attributed to the burning of the heather in Yorkshire during the previous twenty-five years. But no moors the author saw in Yorkshire about that time could bear comparison for regular burning with the moor of Dunbeath, in Caithness, where the strips were as regular and as well defined as the different crops in a market garden; and again, about 1875, the author went over Bowes moor to inspect for a possible purchaser, and he never saw any heather so badly neglected for want of burning. Although there were very few grouse there at that time, this was obviously due to the disease, for there had been any number of them three seasons before.

Driving the grouse at Moy Hall moors was started in a partial manner, without butts, in 1869, and the driving done between then and 1872 was limited to the birds round the corn-fields, and could have had no effect on the stock.

In 1871 the bag was 2836 grouse. In 1872 the bag was 3002 grouse.

Between 1876 and 1879 no driving was done there, but in 1879 there were 103 grouse killed in six drives on the 1st of September.

In that year the kill was 5172 grouse, when the bag was assisted by driving, but the preservation had not been so assisted.

In 1888 there were killed 5822 grouse by means of dogs first and driving afterwards, and in the next season, which was a bad one, dogs were used for the last time.

In 1891 there were shot 3612 grouse. In 1892 the bag was 3513 grouse. In 1893 there were killed 4480 grouse. In 1894 the season produced 4563 grouse. In 1895 the total fell to 2511 grouse. In 1896 it fell lower, to 1402 grouse. In 1897 it touched lower, to 1131 grouse. In 1898 it began to rise to 1943 grouse. In 1899 there were shot 3416 grouse. In 1900 the bag was 6092 grouse. In 1901 the apex was 7127 grouse.

Since that year the season’s bags have not been published, and it is believed that they fell off very much until 1905, when there was a good recovery, but not a record, and disappointment occurred again in 1906.

From these figures we are not able to gather that driving and no dog work has acted as a means of preservation and an increase of the stock, but that it has enabled the grouse to be killed when they were there, as they undoubtedly were in 1879, when the driving was so little understood that it did not materially assist the bags for the season, as may be gathered from the bag for the day quoted above. Nothing can be gathered from these bags to suggest that anything like a remedy for the stagnation spoken of has been discovered, and we hope in vain, year by year, to see that advance of from 400 to 800 per cent. spoken of by Lord Walsingham, eighteen years ago, in regard to Yorkshire.

It has been already pointed out that by draining a moor one may often add a third to its heather-bearing land, and also that by removing a sheep to the acre one conserves about ten times the heather food a grouse eats. Yet neither of these methods has made very much difference anywhere. Both have done something to add to the stock in places, and both have also been disappointing in other places. Surely there must be some reason that has not only never been discovered, but has not even been looked for. It has been shown that were it only a question of heather food, the removal of sheep, where they are one to an acre, would multiply the grouse capacity of the moors by ten times, and the author believes that the majority of moors have on them, even when they carry sheep, ten times the heather the grouse require. If the former, to say nothing of the latter, is approximately true, then there must be something besides heather the grouse require, and the absence of which, in quantities, prevents their increase beyond two to an acre even on the _most favourable_ moors.

There is no doubt from the above facts that there is some such want, but what it is the author can only speculate upon. It appears likely that what is wanted by all young grouse, as by all young animals of other kinds, is proteid. Young birds of all kinds take it in the form of insects, or artificial substitutes. That little grouse begin at once to eat heather is true, but it has never been proved that they can be reared on heather and nothing else. On the other hand, it _has_ been proved that they can be reared without heather, provided they get plenty of insect food. They appear to be almost the easiest of game birds to rear, provided they have leave to help themselves to the insects of the fields, or are supplied with crissel and ants’ eggs by hand. For these reasons the author has arrived at the opinion that, provided the young grouse could be supplied with proteid (insects) for the first three weeks of life, the heather is sufficient to support ten times the numbers found upon the moors in most cases. Of course this could only be done by hand rearing of the birds. But as the grouse seem to lay more readily in confinement than partridges, and as these latter most particular birds have, by the French system, been doubled and doubled again, there seems to be no reason why grouse should not be increased in the same way.

It may be said that disease would stop anything of the kind, but those who advocate the increase of grouse to shoot by the decrease of the parent stock have, it is to be hoped, had their innings. It can be proved that where breeding grouse are kept up to the highest point, there also they are the most healthy.

The author has doubts whether it is desirable to increase the hand rearing of game; but in a book on shooting and game preservation the ethics of sport are not practical if they limit production in any way.

The red grouse (_Lagopus scoticus_) may be shot from the morning of the 12th of August to the evening of the 10th of December. Heather burning is legal at all times in England, but only from 1st of November to 10th of April in Scotland, which is another means by which an Act of Parliament has damaged the interests of the grouse shooter, since it generally happens that not enough heather burning can be done in the winter months, and September and October are quite as necessary burning months as March itself.

METHODS OF SHOOTING THE RED GROUSE

Whether we ask the driver of game or the dog man does not matter, all are agreed that the red grouse is the most sporting bird we have. It is only necessary to see how artfully grouse butts are placed, in order to make the shooting as easy as possible, to know that the grouse’s flight is a match for the shooter. Successful drivings, or big bags in the day, which is the same thing, require every assistance to be given to the gunner, for in grouse shooting height is an assistance to him, although it is the reverse in pheasant shooting. The reason is that the grouse usually flies too low for a clear sight of it against the sky, and also low enough to make shooting dangerous when the birds cross the line of the butts. The time has not yet come with grouse, as it has with pheasants to a great extent, when beats are planned to make the shooting as difficult as possible. This is not wholly true of pheasants either, because no one for the sake of increased difficulty places shooters amongst trees, and especially fir trees, and nobody for the added difficulty shoots his pheasants when the leaf is still on. In the same way, a grouse driver does not put his butts where grouse cannot be seen approaching, but selects a position 40 or more yards behind a slight rise in the ground, in order that the guns may see the game before it is within range, but not so much before that the sight of the gunners in the butts will turn the grouse. So, then, to make big bags, every advantage has to be taken to drive the grouse as easily for the guns as can be done, and besides this the “crack” gunners excel in being best able to select the easiest, or perhaps it would be better to say the possible birds. They neither lose time in trying to get on to birds when there is not time to succeed, or in shooting at others so far off as to be at wounding distances.

The red grouse also puts the shooter over dogs to the test. Even at the beginning of the season the direct walk up with the dog will generally result in the old cock getting off unshot at. But with two gunners who walk wide of the dog, the chances are that one of them will get a fair shot at the old cock, which invariably runs away, and leaves his wife and children to learn wisdom by experience and his example. Later on it may be necessary to hunt the dogs down wind, and this proceeding nearly always results in making birds lie much better than they otherwise would; for the grouse are found by the dog when the latter is to leeward, and the guns by walking down wind to the point complete the surrounding movement. It may be said that unless grouse have their heads up (when they are only fit for driving) they always are approachable by guns, provided the latter set about it the right way, and have dogs good enough to hunt down wind well and without flushing the game. The qualities required in the dog cover a very wide range—a very long and certain nose, and an absence of drawing up to game to make sure of it; that is, an absence of hesitation in pointing. Then the degree of accuracy of shooting that is enough in driving with cylinder guns at 25 to 30 yards range is not more than half enough with a full choke bore at 50 yards range.

There is ample scope for improvement always in grouse shooting, and the author has never heard of the gunner who is always satisfied with his efforts, either when shooting driven game or when shooting grouse over dogs. Those who talk of the “battue” and “slaughter” in the same breath have never tried, and those drivers of game who talk of shooting over dogs as too easy for their skill find out their own weak spots when they try it.

The proper driving of grouse to the guns is the result of local education based on sound broad principles. The former it is obviously not possible to deal with, and the latter have already been admirably stated elsewhere, except for this: it has been assumed that grouse can be driven everywhere, but this is very far from correct. They certainly cannot be driven where they will lie well to dogs all the season. Moreover, they cannot be satisfactorily driven when they resort to the “tops” of the ranges of hills or mountains in the Highlands, where a short flight puts them 500 feet over the “flankers’” heads. These flag-men then have no more effect on the direction of the flight of the grouse than the other “insects” in the heather have, for the drivers resemble insects when crawling along so far below.