CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN THE RED GROUSE 141 



is about the most unlikely thing for Grouse to feed upon." l 

 He says, too, that after bad disease there are more survivors 

 on the high exposed heather-frosted parts of the moor than on 

 the lower sheltered localities, and that " ' Grouse Disease ' 

 has not been peculiar to those seasons when the heather was 

 most generally frost-bitten, or when it had not been covered 

 and protected by snow. . . . Some of the most fatal visitations 

 have been preceded by winters more remarkable for mildness 

 than severity." 



The statements contained in the above quotations from 

 Macdonald and Colquhoun are probably due to a misuse of the 

 term " frosted heather," for there is a condition of heather 

 which is not rightly called " frosted heather," and it will prevent 

 misunderstanding if the meaning of the term is clearly defined. 

 To begin with, young, fresh, green heather of the early summer 

 may be caught by a late black frost which sweeps over the moor 

 and literally " scorches " it red. This is a comparatively 

 frequent occurrence in the north of England, and was well ex- 

 emplified on a certain Yorkshire moor in the early summer of 

 1907. The countryside was green one week, and " as red as 

 a fox " the next. Every leaf that was turned red by the 

 freezing winds (there was no snow) died, and eventually dropped 

 off without recovering. But the plant was not killed ; it very 

 soon put out fresh leaves from the lower stalks, and the moor 

 in a few weeks was as green as ever. Still, the fact remains 

 that the birds of that moor were suddenly reduced from a very 

 abundant to a very limited supply of food, for in no case will 

 a Grouse eat such useless stuff, nor has a Grouse's crop ever 

 been found to contain this fox-red frosted heather. It is dead, 

 and the birds know it and will not eat it, but forthwith proceed 

 to look for something that is not dead, therefore any harm 

 that accompanies its appearance is due, not to the presence 

 of unwholesome food, but to the sudden shortage of wholesome 

 food. Such fox-red frosted heather must on no account be 



1 Tom Speedy, "Sport in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland," p. 202. 

 Second Edition. Edinburgh and London : William Blackwood and Sons, 1886. - 



