CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN THE RED GROUSE 179 



the effect of having been upon the corn. St John notes that on August 

 12th, 1847, during a severe epidemic of disease in Morayshire, Grouse were 

 feeding in numbers on unfilled green oats in the small fields near the moor. 

 This, he says, he had never seen before, though he was accustomed to see Grouse 

 flocking to the stubbles in the autumn.^ 



Sickly birds found feeding on the stooks were forwarded for examination 

 in 1908, birds seriously diseased with Cobbold's Strongylosis, wasted piners that 

 could hardly fly. These were probably sick birds that had been crowded out 

 from the good feed on the moor by the healthier birds which live there in 

 packs, and only occasionally make a raid upon the corn. 



Possibly the stubble fields may become dangerously infected ground if 

 sick birds frequent them even in moderate numbers. They may con- 



.,,.,.„ J J Dangers of 



taminate with their droppings far more corn than they can eat, and com feed- 



healthy birds may thus run a risk if they make their visits too frequently. 



It is perhaps in this way that the idea originated that overmuch corn-feeding 



is a precursor of disease. 



The following extracts bear out this view of the matter : — 



Macdonald quotes as follows from a pamphlet written by Mr William Colquhoun 



of Ross-shire in 1858 : — "The Grouse have fed a great deal ou the stooks durino- 



O O 



the disease (1854-1856) ; and on the stubbles after the corn was stacked ; and also 

 in spring on the sown corn. This year (1858) the Grouse did not come to the 

 corn as in former years." (The disease had then quite disappeared.)'" 



Again Colquhoun says that Grouse thrive in confinement when fed on 

 corn ; but allows that their greed for corn increases in disease years. He thinks 

 that possibly they are upset by eating damaged and unwholesome heather, 

 and are driven to stook and stubble for a sufiiciency of food.^ 



Speedy, too, wTites as follows : — 



"An excessive consumption of corn by the Grouse species, particularly in 

 wet seasons when the harvests are late, has been assigned as a cause of the 

 ' Grouse Disease.' " ^ But he goes on to say that hand-reared Grouse can live for 

 several years in perfect health without seeing anything but corn ; and that 

 whereas on the Dalnaspidal and Rannoch moors the birds were too far from 

 cultivation ever to see corn, yet they suff'ered badly from disease in 1873. 



' Charles St Johu, " Natural History and Sport in Moray," p. 202. Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1882. 

 2 Macdonald, "Grouse Disease," p. 123. William Colquhoun, "Remarks ou the Decrease of Grouse 

 •and the Grouse Disease," p. 29. Edinburgh : Edmonston and Douglas, 1858. 

 ^ Colquhoun's Pamphlet, p. 30. 

 * Speedy, "Sport in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland," p. 200, 



