134 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



investigate the subject of Grouse Disease, 1906 to 1910. 

 Previously the condition was commonly attributed to the 

 action of frost, and the foxy-red patches of heather were 

 styled " frosted." But nothing is more certain than that 

 the whole injury is due to the ravages of the Heather Beetle 

 (see " The Grouse in Health and in Disease," being the Final 

 Report of the Committee of Enquiry o?t Grouse Disease, 191 1, 

 p. 414 ft.). Only two remedies for the evil are suggested, 

 namely the burning of the heather in the height of summer, 

 which is the only season of the year at which burning can 

 reach the pest, and encouraging those birds which feed on 

 the beetle. Burning the heather between May and August 

 might probably do more injury to the grazing value of the 

 moors, as well as to the Grouse, than even the results would 

 justify, and it seems as if we must in this, as in many other 

 matters, rely upon the eyes and appetites of birds. So far, 

 the only birds which have been found to feed upon the 

 beetles are Black game and Pheasants. Black game devour 

 them by thousands, and so do Pheasants ; but Grouse 

 never touch them. And to-day both Black game and 

 Pheasants are recommended for wholesale destruction by 

 the Board of Agriculture, without distinction of district or 

 topography. 



The whole subject does in truth call loudly for systematic, 

 impartial, and continuous investigation, judiciously under- 

 taken by trained minds. I do not know whether the 

 German Board of Agriculture has a department charged 

 with the duties of such research, but while we have heard 

 much in recent days of the degree in which German 

 agricultural results surpass our own, no one has yet dwelt 

 upon the masses of birds of every class and kind which in 

 happier times have gladdened the eyes of every student 

 of bird-life, who has taken a country walk in that, beautiful 

 land. I hope that Dr Collinge's suggestion of a Chair 

 of Economic Ornithology to be founded in connection with 

 one of our Universities, may receive most earnest considera- 

 tion ; for only by an investigator equipped with ample 

 funds, and with discretionary powers as to the securing 

 of specimens, provided also with the necessary time for 



