CLASSIFICATION AND LIFE HISTORY 29 



by distributing and increasing the areas to which the packs 

 may resort for food. 1 



In autumn, where a moor is near arable land, the birds 

 will often come to feed on the stubbles and corn stooks ; they 

 sometimes come in hundreds, and from long distances. This 

 is not, however, the universal rule, for in some districts Grouse 

 feed very little upon the corn, and in some seasons they appear 

 to frequent the arable land more than in others. It has often 

 been observed that by improving the heather on a moor Grouse 

 may be induced to feed less upon the stooks. The change is 

 often accompanied by an improvement in the health of the stock, 

 and this has given rise to the view that corn is an unwhole- 

 some diet for Grouse. 2 



In very severe weather the Grouse leave the high grounds 

 entirely, and remove in packs many miles to the lower moors 

 where they can find " black ground," or to a hill plantation 

 where they can pick up a bare sustenance in the shape of various 

 seeds. When they are very hard pressed, as in the winter of 

 1894, they even flock to the turnip fields, and instances of 

 their alighting on thorn hedges to pick the haws are recorded 

 in the Field of that year. In Argyllshire they have been known 

 to feed on birch twigs during the winter settling on the trees 

 to reach the woody buds. 



The subject of the migration of Grouse is one which has 

 engaged the attention of many naturalists ; but there has 

 been a tendency among observers to note only the abnormal 

 cases, and from them to deduce a general rule. One great 

 obstacle in the way of accurate observation is the difficulty 

 of identifying the original point of departure of the wandering 

 packs. In spite of the confident statements of gamekeepers 

 that they can tell by the size and plumage of a bird that he has 

 come from a certain district many miles away, it is more than 

 probable that the newcomer has always had his habitation 

 within a few miles of the neighbouring march, or even that he 

 has never left his home, but has disguised himself by a sudden 



1 Vide chap. xii. pp. 343 et aeq. 2 Vide chap. iv. pp. 146 et seq. 



