GROUSE: THE HEATHER BIRD. 



careful tread, respects the nest and eggs of its native 

 companion." 



Colonel Whyte, an authority, remarks : 'The place 

 the grouse loves to feed on is knolly ground, with 

 the young, short Heather sprouting up; and this is 

 precisely the spot which the sheep selects for his nightly 

 resting place. Can we wonder, then, at the livers of 

 grouse being diseased, feeding, as the birds do, on 

 Heather besmeared with mercury?" 



"The diseases of the grouse," says an authority, 

 "a contagious epidemic like cholera, scarlet fever or 

 measles ; bad Heather ; the consequences of overstock- 

 ing unwholesome food; atmospheric influences; tape 

 worms dropped from sheep in embryo form and taken 

 up by the grouse in their food ; and liver complaint. 

 Disease proceeded from lead poisoning, caused by the 

 grouse eating shot. Shot, by oxidation, becomes the 

 color of whortleberries ; it is thought that the grouse 

 picked them up in mistake for these berries. 



"The most wholesome food for the grouse are 

 the young and tender shoots of the Heather. Old, 

 rank Heather, and decayed fibers, lack the conditions 

 requisite for a healthy condition of grouse, and are 

 not duly assimilated in the system of the bird ; disease 

 of the liver, from the results of which they speedily 

 die. When there is not a sufficiency of young Heather 

 for the grouse to feed upon they will take other food 

 which does not agree with them. Scottish Heather, 

 again, is of great importance for the nests of the 

 grouse. Grouse never hatch in long Heather if they 

 can avoid it; nor do they lie in it. Nests are rarely 

 found in Heather of more than a foot in length. 



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