82 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



reliable a winter food as good heather. Other substitutes for 

 heather are rush-heads, crowberry, bog myrtle buds, seeds of 

 Potentilla tormentilla, fern leaves, bog cranberry leaves, flowers of 

 Erica tetralix and Erica cinerea, moss spore capsules, sheep 



TABLE II. SHOWING THE PERCENTAGES OF VARIOUS FOODS FOUND IN CROP 

 CONTENTS OF GROUSE FROM APRIL TO NOVEMBER INCLUSIVE. 



sorrel leaves and seeds, insects, and oats. On pp. 97-101 will 

 be found a list of the vegetable foods eaten from time to time 

 by the Red Grouse, with illustrations of some of the plants 

 referred to. 



The summer substitutes for heather, while interesting as 

 showing the wide range of the Grouse's diet when many varieties 

 of food are available, cannot be considered of great importance 

 to the health of the adult bird, for if the heather is good, and 

 the supply sufficient, the stock will be well nourished and 

 healthy even on a moor where there are no berries or other 

 miscellaneous kinds of food. 



Heather, then, is the essential basis on which the Grouse 

 depends, and the importance of the plant is so great that it 

 may be permitted to give a short description of the phases 

 through which it passes during the seasons of the year. 



Beginning with the months of early spring, it will be seen 

 from Table II. that in April the Grouse's diet consists of an 

 equal quantity of fresh green heather and of brown " winter " 

 heather. The former is more nutritious than the latter, but 



