GRIT 99 



and expense to fence off enclosures from the sheep where any tendency is 

 seen for the growth of Blaeberries, Cranberries, Crowberries, or the like, and 

 the Grouse would quickly find and make use of them. 



No. 1215 may be cited here as a case in point, for the bird was an 

 obviously convalescent hen Grouse of 16 ounces, with every sign of excessive 

 Helminthiasis, but a complete absence of Davainea, and only one or two 

 portions of Hymenolepis. Trichostrongylus alone was present in great 

 numbers. The gizzard contained no quartz, but was full of hard seeds (cluster- 

 berry or Vaccinium Vitis-idcea). The small intestine, full of food, was very 

 irregularly contracted, and contained not only many unbroken clusterberry 

 seeds, but quartz grits as well, while the rectum contained the same, and 

 exhibited a considerable amount of punctiform, villous reddening, especially 

 in the lower third. 



Grouse No. 1228 was a rather similar case, the gizzard being crammed 

 with hawthorn seeds, and having no quartz at all, while the small intestine 

 was very much irritated, had its vessels all fully injected with very fluid 

 contents, and yet no Davainea at all. The rectum w^as again red with injected 

 villi. This bird was caught sick. It was a case of Strongylosis in a hen 

 of 13 ounces only. 



In the Blackcock the gizzard with its quartz pebbles can crush hawthorn 

 pips, but the Grouse apparently cannot crush any of the pips or even much 

 smaller berries such as Clusterberry, Blaeberry, or Crowberry. They all pass 

 through intact. Nos. 1265, 1723, 1733, 1735, 1817 are all cases in point. 



It is particularly unfortunate that during deep snow, when Grouse have 

 great difficulty in replenishing their stock of gizzard grits, they are compelled 

 by hunger to feed upon the very foods which most rapidly evacuate their entire 

 stock of grits. The hips and haws whose large hard seeds, as has been said, 

 quickly replace the quartz in their gizzards, are comparatively useless to them 

 for dealing with heather or Blaeberry shoots, yet the bush and tree fruits are 

 amongst the first emergency rations used in a heavy fall of snow, since they 

 come within reach as the ground foods become more deeply buried. 



The strongest evidence that quartz is the most suitable form of grit is 

 its universal presence in all the vegetable feeding birds that can obtain it. 

 Red Grouse, Ptarmigan, Blackgame, and Capercailzie, as well as Pheasants 

 and Partridges bred on the moor borders, and Scandinavian Willow Grouse, 

 all collect quartz, and nothing but quartz, if it is by any means to be obtained. 



