5i8 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



H. Rimington-Wilson's moor, in the year 1904, a party of nine 

 guns made a record bag of 1,374 brace on 24th August. On 

 the Marquis of Ripon's moors near Studley Royal, Lord de 

 Grey has killed 575 birds in one day, as one of a party of 

 seven guns. In 1901, a Richmond game dealer sent away, 

 during one week in August, 17,352 Grouse, the price ranging as 

 low as 2/- per brace. 



Grouse pair in January or even earlier, generally com- 

 mencing to nest in March or April ; the old cocks are most 

 pugnacious, driving away the younger birds during the 

 breeding season, and the old hen birds also drive off the 

 younger hens from their vicinity, with the result that the 

 nests suffer. Young vigorous Grouse usually have clutches 

 of from seven to nine, whilst the older birds seldom lay more 

 than five to seven eggs ; occasionally, but very rarely, nests 

 are found to contain more than ten, although an instance is 

 on record of one at Routh Head, Arkengarthdale, in 1885, 

 with seventeen eggs, but in this case probably two birds used 

 the same nest. On Lord Walsingham's moors a nest of four- 

 teen eggs was found, all of which were hatched. 



In severe weather nests have been noticed with the contents 

 carefully covered with moss or heather, thus affording protec- 

 tion from late spring frosts ; as eggs are generally found to 

 be uncovered in normal conditions, it would appear that the 

 birds have some instinctive foreboding of the approach of 

 bad weather. When the moors are covered with snow, as 

 occasionally happens during the nesting period, many nests 

 must of necessity be lost and the eggs destroyed through 

 being hidden from view by the covering of snow. In these 

 circumstances the birds, being unable to find their nests, 

 drop their eggs at odd places on the open moorland ; many 

 were thus found in 1903. 



There is no doubt that fewer eggs are destroyed by the 

 action of frost than is generally thought to be the case, as 

 the surrounding heather affords a certain amount of protection. 

 In the exceptionally good grouse year of 1872 snow was lying 

 on the higher hills in North Yorkshire for a period of three 

 days during the nesting time, yet the season was a record one. 



