88 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



the stock of birds is proportionately much greater. The differ- 

 ence is partly to be accounted for by the fact already noted, 

 that the heather in the north of England is of a better quality, 

 that is to say with many more stalks to the square yard, than 

 the rank growth of the west of Scotland, but it has also been 

 suggested that in the former country the normal weather con- 

 ditions are more favourable to the ripening of the heather seed. 

 Again, in Caithness, where the grain always ripens well on account 

 of the long hours of daylight in the summer months, the stock 

 of birds which the ground can carry is unusually large. 



In September, October, and November, the tendency to 

 revert gradually from summer to winter diet is well exemplified 

 by the figures in Table II. Throughout these three months 

 the consumption of the heather seed increases steadily, while 

 " various " drops from 16 per cent, in September to 6 per cent, 

 in November. In October we find the item of " brown winter 

 heather " reappearing in the list, and in November we have 

 a sudden increase in the consumption of blaeberry stalks and 

 leaves, due probably to some temporary check suffered by the 

 heather similar to that indicated by the figures for July. 



Turning to Table III. (p. 89) we find that in the four winter 

 months the diet becomes more restricted. ic Various " practi- 

 cally disappears, and its place is taken by a larger quantity of 

 heather shoots, while heather seeds and blaeberry stalks still 

 keep their place in the list. 



One or two points are worth noting. In the first place, 

 the sudden drop in the consumption of heather seed from 20 J 

 per cent, in January to 2| per cent, in February and 2j per 

 cent, in March is interesting as showing that once the seed 

 has fallen to the ground it is no longer eaten by Grouse, though 

 it may be valuable for the reproduction of the plant. 



Another point is that, both in this and the preceding Table, 

 the figures relating to the consumption of blaeberry stalks 

 and leaves are misleading because they are the result of averag- 

 ing the crop contents of a large number of birds many of them 

 sent from localities where blaeberry is unknown. Were the 



