32 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



first strong gale brings many of them off the hilltops, looking 

 for more sheltered and genial situations. 



" Birds of both sexes will fly a long distance to a patch of 

 black heather during a prevalence of severe frost and heavy 

 snow, but the hens shift about in packs more irregularly than 

 their male companions, and they are less partial to the high 

 grounds, but seek the lower portions of the moor, and such as 

 are most screened from the east winds. Grouse netters say 

 that in fine open weather the birds fly very long distances 

 when shifting about the hills." l 



Observations upon the wandering habits of individual 

 Grouse have also been made where some peculiarity in the bird 

 has made identification possible. An Ayrshire gamekeeper 

 has told the Committee's field observer of a pure white Grouse 

 which was seen and freely shot at on Glencairn and Upper 

 Cree. It then disappeared, and was seen and shot at many 

 times on a shooting 12 miles away. It was eventually killed 

 by a gamekeeper 9 miles away from either of these moors, 

 and now forms a stuffed specimen in a case in his cottage. 

 All this happened in one season. 



The question of the annual movements and migrations of 

 Grouse are important as a guide to the best methods to be 

 adopted for the regulation of stock. The fact that Grouse 

 annually shift from place to place over a wide area forces one 

 to the conclusion that co-operation is necessary rather than 

 individual effort. For the same reason it is doubtful whether 

 the benefit of introducing fresh blood (either in the form of 

 eggs or of living birds) is confined to the moor on which the 

 fresh blood is introduced. This remark would not, of course, 

 apply to an isolated moor, or one in which for any reason the 

 shifting habits of the birds are not fully developed. 



The weight of Grouse is a subject on which little has been 

 recorded, yet it is one of great interest to the naturalist, for 

 many facts in the life history of the bird are associated with 

 the normal change of weight from one season to another. 



1 Fur and Feather Series, "The Grouse," p. 77. 



