Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V GKOUSE By intelligent management, or the reverse, the head of grouse a moor will produce is so varied it is difficult to believe it is the same ground which has given such different results, amounting possibly to hundreds of brace. In making an estimate of what a moor is capable of producing, besides considering the average " bag " of several consecutive years, so as to allow for good or bad breeding seasons, other factors have also to be taken into account. A good breeding season may have been followed by an exceptionally wet August (when the bulk of the year's crop of birds should be secured), so what was killed in that season may not have been a fair criterion of what might have been secured without injury to the following year. The accident of very brilliant shots, or the reverse, having been members of the earliest shooting parties will make a very large difference in the total for the season, so those years also will need some allowance to be made for them. Still the general "mean" should be a good guide as to whether a moor is improving, going back, or simply standing still. Without local knowledge it is difficult to judge for certain as to the capabilities of a moor when paying a visit of inspection, for there may be peculiarities that prevent the ground fulfilling the promise it holds out at first sight. Though everything may be apparently favourable for nesting or feeding, yet one moor may be a favourite one for nesting, but the grouse leave it as soon as they can fly until perhaps late in the season, while another moor may be exactly the contrary, being an unpopular one for breeding, but a very favourite one afterwards. Other moors attract grouse at certain times, in certain winds or conditions of weather, for...