514 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



by the dozen in a short walk, the succeeding season has 

 been fully up to, or above, the average, especially on the 

 lower moors. It might reasonably be expected that, after 

 a severe winter, the birds would be left in a weakly state, 

 and the clutches of eggs would be smaller and the young 

 broods weaker, but this is not the case ; possibly the whole 

 of the weakly and diseased individuals, being unable to 

 withstand the weather, succumb, thereby leaving a stronger 

 and more vigorous breeding stock. 



Grouse are seldom observed in the cultivated lowlands 

 in mild winters, although during the season 1903-4 they were 

 seen in scores on oat stubbles adjoining the moors in Wensley- 

 dale, an event of rare occurrence ; probably the exceeding 

 late harvest had something to do with this. It was most 

 interesting to watch them feeding on the stocks, where they 

 appeared to adopt the same method of stripping up the ears 

 as they do in dealing with the young shoots of heather ; 

 evidently they are exceedingly fond of corn, as they persistently 

 frequented these oat stubbles when shooting was going on 

 a few hundred yards away. 



The habits of Grouse are even yet imperfectly known, 

 but, thanks to the keener observations of some of the 

 more intelligent moorland keepers, fresh traits are constantly 

 being discovered ; as is well known, they are very fond of 

 grit, which is in fact a necessity to them, and until recently 

 it was not generally known that they ate peat, but in north 

 Yorkshire they have been observed to do so. In the mornings 

 they eject a pasty mass of indigestible matter ; this was 

 very conspicuous on the snow in the winter of 1895, and 

 Mr. J. Ingleby of Eavestone kindly forwarded me samples, 

 which were examined by Mr. Percy Grimshaw of the Royal 

 Scottish Museum, who pronounced them to consist of pieces 

 of grit and vegetable matter, leaves of plants and ling, formed 

 into a pulp. Partridges eject substances of a similar nature. 

 Grouse will freely perch on the stunted trees at the fringe of 

 the moor, and they have constantly been observed late in 

 the autumn and early winter perched in thorn bushes on a 

 lowland moor in Wensleydale. In frosty weather they are 



