GROUSE: THE HEATHER BIRD. 



the vastness and profundity of the solitude; as well 

 as the strange and unfamiliar sights and sounds of 

 the scene all these appeal to that poetical spiritual 

 faculty which is latent even in the most prosaic statis- 

 tician of St. Stephen's." 



The diseases of the grouse and their causes have 

 long given concern to the ardent sportsman ; and the 

 matter has been frequently discussed. About half a 

 century ago several contributions on the subject ap- 

 peared in "Chambers' Journal." One writer remarked : 

 "It would seem from a series of articles that sheep 

 are in excess, which is very naturally the case now 

 in Scotland on many moors. The Heather must be 

 burned to a great extent to make room for them and 

 to produce fresh food, which is depriving grouse of 

 shelter. In the next place, as sheep are perpetually 

 in motion, they constantly disturb the ground, and in 

 the breeding season unquestionably destroy the nests, 

 and in the autumn they are dressed with an ointment 

 composed of butter, tar and mercury. The question 

 then arises as to whether the dressing so far affects 

 the constitution of the sheep for a time that the soil 

 and herbage are influenced thereby so as to be preju- 

 dicial to grouse." 



Another writer, in the same journal, says : "Let 

 Scotland return to its natural state, as I found it in 

 1832, and feed on its grouse portions the Highland 

 black-faced sheep in place of its foreign usurper, the 

 white-faced Cheviot. The black-faced requires less 

 care, less burning of the Heather, less gathering and 

 driving, less grease and tar, stains the ground less, 

 travels less in bodies, and with its quick eye and light, 

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