144 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



heather may be exposed, and even though oats and corn may 

 have been put down in abundance for the birds, the most 

 important step has often not been taken to relieve the necessi- 

 ties of starving Grouse. They must have grit, for without grit 

 it is almost useless to put down corn. This was realised and 

 put into practice in the snowstorm of 1881, but only by very 

 few. Corn was put down here and there for the ravenous 

 birds, and though some of it was eaten it was evidently not 

 what they were most eager to obtain. On one moor, at any 

 rate, men were sent out with shovels, not merely to expose 

 the heather, but to open up the " scrapes " along the road 

 sides all over the moor, and thus to expose fresh grit. Every 

 day new grit was laid open and rotten quartz and sandy rock 

 were broken out, and each day a fresh supply was needed. 

 Grit, therefore, was what the birds v, r ere really starving for, and 

 it was the want of it that rendered them incapable of dealing 

 with hard corn or winter heather. With good quartz grit they 

 can deal with almost anything, even the very woody heather 

 that appears above the snow ; without grit they will starve. 

 Any one may assure himself of this by examining the winter 

 crop-contents of the white-winged Willow Grouse or " Rype " 

 of Scandinavia the bird which decorates our poultry shops as 

 " Ptarmigan " in winter. It is quite wonderful to see how 

 excellent is the condition of these birds, living as they do on 

 hard wooden alder twigs and buds, woody dwarf willow twigs 

 and old rank heather. Their crop contents are extraordinarily 

 hard and uninviting in appearance, and yet with good quartz 

 grit everything is ground up and utilised. 



Another cause of death to Grouse is the ravages of birds 

 and beasts of prey. This subject is dealt with elsewhere. 1 



Deaths also occur amongst Red Grouse owing to the anta- 

 gonism which exists between the male birds of Blackgame and 

 Capercailzie, and those of the Red Grouse. The two former 

 have been blamed for the disappearance of Grouse from certain 

 parts of the country. John Colquhoun, speaking of the decrease 



1 Vide chap. xiv. pp. 405 et seq. 



