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.