1898.] on a Yorkshire Moor. 637 



the months when the grouse are free of it. But the absorbing topic 

 on which every dweller by the moor is expected to have an opinion, 

 is the grouse disease. 



All sorts of causes Lave been assigned, such as over-stocking of 

 the moors, destruction of the large hawks which used to kill off ailing 

 birds, parasitic worms, cold, deficiency of food, and so on. Some 

 Yorkshire sportsmen have attributed the disease to the scarcity of 

 gritty sand. On shale-moors, tbey maintain, the gizzard of the 

 grouse is filled with soft stones, which will not grind up the heather- 

 tops effectively, except when they are young and tender. On sand- 

 stone moors the grouse can deal with tougher food, and there the 

 disease, it is sa'd, is unknown. Dr. Klein's researches * show that 

 the disease is really due to the multiplication within the body of a 

 specific germ, which is fungal, but not bacterial. The infection is 

 conveyed, or may be conveyed, by the air. 



The viper is rare, and until quite lately I had never heard of its 

 presence on our Yorkshire moors. Lizards are also rare, but efts are 

 not uncommon. Among the moorland moths are many small Tineina 

 (allied to the clothes moth). The caterpillar of the emj^eror moth 

 is characteristic, and seems to be protectively coloured, for it wears the 

 livery of the heather — green and pink. The moths which issue from 

 these larv8B are captured in great numbers by Sunday ramblers, whd 

 resort to the base contrivance of bringing a female moth in a cage^ 

 The self-styled " naturalist " sits on a rock, and captures one by ond 

 the eager moths which come about him, afterwards pinning out the 

 expanded wings to form grotesque patterns, or selling his specimens 

 to the dealers. Certain wide-spread Diptera are plentiful, and there 

 are a few which pass their larval stages in the quick-running streams 

 which flow down from the moor. The small number of good-sized 

 insects partly exj)lains (or is exj)lained by) the paucity of conspicuouSj 

 scented or honey-bearing flowers. In this the moor contrasts strongly 

 with the higher Aljjs. Bees, however, get much honey from the 

 large-flowered heaths and ling ; heather-honey is considered better 

 than any other. A little scale insect (^Orthesia uva) has been found 

 plentifully on the Sphagnum of the moors, particularly in C'umber- 

 land.f A big spider (^E^eira diadema) spreads its snare among the 

 heather, and may now and then be seen to deal in a particularly 

 artful fashion with a wasp or other large insect which may have 

 blundered into the web. The spider cuts the threads away till the 

 struggling insect dangles ; cautiously on outstretched leg holds out 

 and attaches a new thread, and then sets the wasp spinning. The 

 silken thread, paid out from the spinneret, soon binds the victim into 

 a helpless mummy.J I have never found gossamer so abundant as 

 on the verges of the moor. 



* ' The Etiolop;y and Pathology of Grouse Disease, &c.' (1892). 

 t Shaw (180G) quoted by R. Blanchard in ' Ann. Soc. Eiit. Fr.' torn. Ixv. 

 p. 681 (1896). i Blackwall's ' Spiders/ vol. ii. p. 359. 



