138 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



1. Climatic extremes are well known and well recognised. 

 They may occur from the time the eggs are laid to the end of 

 the bird's life. At every age, in every season, and every 

 year, the welfare of the bird is threatened by unusual climatic 

 conditions in one direction or another. 



Excessive heat and its usual accompaniment, water famine, 

 are both somewhat uncommon at the time of year when they 

 would be most dangerous to Grouse life. They are referred to 

 in chapter i. 1 



The following abstracts sum up the harm ascribed in the 

 past to wet and cold. Macdonald in " Grouse Disease " has 

 no doubt about the matter when he writes that " Damp and 

 cold never fail to produce diarrhoea, cramp, and disease " ; 

 and again, " Excessively cold or wet seasons are succeeded by 

 great mortality among birds, and Grouse suffer more in wet 

 than in dry seasons, however cold this was strikingly demons- 

 trated in the wet season of 1872-1873 " ; and again, " Cold wet 

 causes bad hatching seasons." 2 So also Macpherson in the 

 Fur and Feather Series says that young Grouse " do best in 

 fairly dry seasons." 3 And for the bad effect of cold and wet 

 on the food supply Macdonald, again, in " Grouse Disease," 

 says : " We can also connect the disease with wet seasons. 

 The heather does not quite ripen, particularly the small tops 

 on which Grouse chiefly feed." 4 



There seems, in fact, to be a consensus of opinion amongst 

 those who have had the best opportunities for judging, that 

 the hatching season can hardly be too dry so long as there 

 are dewy nights. The chicks can supply their needs by drinking 

 dew in the morning, and beyond this they find sufficient moisture 

 in the insects and young succulent moss-capsules and heather 

 shoots which form their staple diet, and which contain something 

 like 60 to 80 per cent, of water. The sitting hens want water 

 and must have it, and their bulky droppings may always be found 



1 Vide chap. i. pp. 104-106. 



2 Macdonald, "Grouse Disease," pp. 24, 40. 



:! Fur and Feather Series, "The Grouse," p. 24. 

 4 Macdonald, "Grouse Disease," p. 40. 



