MILLIONS A YEAR FOR BIRDS TO SHOOT

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 78, 29 September 1934, Page 25

MILLIONS A YEAR FOR BIRDS TO SHOOT

No bird in the world is so sensitive of its social position as tho British red grouse, for it is tho only one of the four hundred-odd British birds that is exclusively native to tho British Isles and found nowhere outsi.do this country save where British birds have been introduced into Belgium, writes Eric Hardy in the "Daily Mail."

More money is spent on pampering the lordly grouso of the moors than is spent on any other bird, even tho ostrich of fashion and tho egret that provided tho "osprey" plumes. Over S 2,000,000 a year is spent on providing social quarters fit for grouse on our northern moors.

For the first time on record thoro will bo two"buniper" grouso years in succession, for nesting conditions were ideal this summer and a good stock of birds was carried over from last season. Flocks average eight to ten grouse per covey and tho "cheepers" are strong on the wing. Workers on the moors who make their living through tho grouse-shooting aro expecting the most prosperous season for years, for, with the return of business confidence, more bookings have been made than last year. Last year was one> of the finest grouso years in memory; tho two years beforo it were two of the worst.

The red grquse is also the most conservative bird in Britain. Naturalists know very, little of its ways. Though over ten thousand grouse have been fitted with'numbered aluminium rings round, their legs .by Professor Eitchie, of Aberdeen University, and his naturalist helpers, in the hopes of revealing the; secrets of their little-known move-

ments, the grouse has kept its secret much to itself, and still wears its ring.

Scientists havo recently learned that tho grouso is even, moro conservative than they previously supposed; English and Scotch grouse will have nothing whntover to do with Irish grouso. In fact, so much are tho relations between the two races estranged that the British Ornithologists Union, tho official authority on tho naming of British birds, and whoso word is final, havo decided to separate the Irish red grouse from the Scottish red grouso as a different bird (Lagopus scoticus hibernicus). Tho best Scotch grouso will not associate themselves with the grouse of the Outer Hebrides, which belong to tho Irish breed, and so tho scientists havo included the Hebridean grouse with the new Irish grouse.

Then thero aro some white grouso on the Yorkshire and Scottish moors. Most sportsmen clo not-shoot white grouse. It is not bad luck to shoot a white grouse, but bad manners. The owner of tho shoot will probably not invite tho sportsman to his moors again. His fel-low-sportsmen ' will probably publicly strip him of his gun and leggings! Tho food of the grouso is tho best northern heather, and for dessert it takes dewberries and crowberries. It will seldom touch your common partridge's maggots, or tho pheasant's biscuit-meal. Only from August 12 to December 9 can you shoot a red grouse, and if you so much as fire at one during the rest of tho year, or even then without licence and the owner's permission, it will cost you a £5 note! Why! a grouse -would not so much as look at the golden eagle!