112 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Clusterberry, Blaeberry, or Crowberry. They all pass through 

 intact. 



The possibility has been suggested that the replacement of 

 quartz grits by hard seeds of fruit, and the passage of the former 

 through the intestine may act as a vermifuge. So often has 

 a diet of berries apparently arrested a case of Helminthiasis 

 that it is a question to be seriously considered whether enough 

 attention is given to the encouragement of berry-bearing plants 

 upon a moor. \ In many cases the sheep keep them so closely 

 cropped that except where there are woods or enclosures it is 

 difficult to find a visible trace of them. It would perhaps 

 repay the trouble and expense to fence off enclosures from the 

 sheep where any tendency is seen for the growth of Blaeberries, 

 Cranberries, Crowberries, or the like, and the Grouse would 

 quickly find and make use of them. 



It is particularly unfortunate that during deep snow, when 

 Grouse have great difficulty in replenishing their stock of 

 gizzard grits, they are compelled by hunger to feed upon the 

 very foods which most rapidly evacuate their entire stock of 

 grits. The hips and haws whose large, hard seeds, as has been 

 said, quickly replace the quartz in their gizzards, are com- 

 paratively useless to them for dealing with heather or Blae- 

 berry shoots, yet the bush and tree fruits are amongst the first 

 emergency rations used in a heavy fall of snow, since they 

 come within reach as the ground foods become more deeply 

 buried. 



The strongest evidence that quartz is the most suitable 

 form of grit is its universal presence in all the vegetable feeding 

 birds that can obtain it. Red Grouse, Ptarmigan, Black- 

 game, and Capercailzie, as well as Pheasants and Partridges 

 bred on the moor borders, and Scandinavian Willow Grouse, 

 all collect quartz, and nothing but quartz, if it is by any 

 means to be obtained. 



