CLASSIFICATION AND LIFE HISTORY 25 



they will burrow in the soft snow to reach the heather under- 

 neath. It is quite common to come upon birds in holes a foot 

 or two under the loose snow. It is only when the snow has 

 become covered with a hard, icy crust that the Grouse begin 

 to feel the pinch of hunger. On these occasions they may be 

 seen in large packs following in the track of a herd of deer or 

 a flock of sheep in order to take advantage of the broken sur- 

 face. They have even been known to eat the old unburnt 

 stick heather which on all other occasions they reject as unfit 

 for food ; but this is probably the last resource of the famine- 

 stricken stock, and hardly justifies the practice of leaving a 

 large amount of this unwholesome old heather as a food reserve 

 in time of snow, for such a practice must greatly reduce the 

 available supply of food at the critical period of early spring. 

 A better practice is undoubtedly to burn all the more exposed 

 ridges and knolls with careful discrimination, so that in which- 

 ever direction the snow may drift there is a good chance that 

 some good feeding heather will be left bare. 



It might be thought that where a heavy snowstorm occurs 

 during the night there would be a risk of whole packs of Grouse 

 being covered up and smothered by the drifts as the birds 

 were jugging in a sheltered hollow. Sheep are often lost in 

 large numbers by such misadventure, but Grouse never, for 

 as they jug in the lee of a peat-hag or a moorland dyke they 

 tread the snow under them as it falls, and are found next morn- 

 ing safely collected on the surface, though their fresh droppings 

 several feet below show the level at which they began their 

 night's repose. 



It has been said that Grouse often avail themselves of the 

 shelter of woods and plantations in time of snow ; but the 

 evidence on the subject is contradictory. In some districts 

 it has been found beneficial to plant trees as a shelter for Grouse ; 

 in other districts, especially in the north of Scotland, they never 

 use woods for shelter. 



It is generally believed that a hard winter with much snow 

 is beneficial to the health of the stock in the following spring, 



