CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN THE RED GROUSE 145 



of Grouse in some districts says : " This may in part be 

 attributed to the advance of cultivation ; but I cannot help 

 thinking the Blackgame have a good share in driving off the 

 Grouse, as I know of one instance where the former were killed 

 off, and the latter again returned to their old haunts. I believe 

 it is also more than suspected that the Capercailzie, wherever 

 they are introduced, have a great inclination to dispossess 

 both/' ! 



Corn feeding is a habit which has become general among Com feed- 

 Grouse and Blackgame wherever the lie of the land permits, mg * 

 or the condition of a moor facilitates it. It is often mentioned 

 as an accompaniment, or a cause, or a forerunner, or a 

 consequence, of " Grouse Disease." The opinion of game- 

 keepers on the subject is about equally divided ; some say 

 that it does the birds more good than harm, and others say 

 exactly the reverse. Occasionally yet another suggestion is 

 made which appears on the whole to meet a certain proportion 

 of cases, namely, that in certain districts the weaklings alone 

 are to be found upon the stooks and stubbles, or, in other words, 

 that corn feeding is a consequence of sickness, not a cause. 

 Generally speaking, in districts where large packs habitually 

 come upon the stubbles, it is probably because they have in- 

 sufficient food upon the moors. Grouse when feeding on the 

 stooks are generally not only healthy but wild, until they have 

 filled themselves with corn, when their habitual wariness 

 often seems to leave them. This has long been recognised, and 

 in Adam's " Reminiscences," for example, we find the state- 

 ment that " Grouse, when they get on the plough are sometimes 

 very stupid." 2 A case in point occurs in the extraordinary 

 series of deaths to Blackgame caused by collision, which has 

 been described above. 3 



Corn feeding is customary with healthy Grouse on some 

 moors much more than on others ; but the evidence seems to 

 show that when sick birds appear on the cornfields they are 



1 John Colquhoun, " Moor and Loch," p. 202, note. 



2 Adam, " Reminiscences," p. 25, 3 Vide pp. 119 etseq. 



K 



