LOCAL CONDITIONS AND HEALTH OF GROUSE 275 



(8) What connection, if any, can be established between 

 the food supply of one year and the health of the 

 stock in the following year ? 



The Reports obtained on these and other matters were full 

 of detail, and reflected the greatest credit on the powers of 

 observation of the correspondents who drew them up, but the 

 work of abstracting and analysing the material proved long and 

 laborious, and it is to be feared that in some respects the results 

 may not appear conclusive. Perhaps more definite results might 

 have been obtained had the Reports been spread over a longer 

 period, but it is more reasonable to suppose that as a matter 

 of fact the direct effect of any one natural agency is incapable 

 of exact definition owing to the impossibility of eliminating 

 the various other natural agencies which form factors in the 

 case. Thus it might conceivably happen that a fine dry breed- 

 ing season, which is favourable to the hatching and growth of 

 the young chicks, might also be favourable to the development 

 of one or other of the parasites which cause their destruction. 

 The frost, snow, and rain which brings privation to the nesting 

 hen and hardship to the growing brood may also serve to purify 

 the ground of many a harmful taint. Recorded effects of differ- 

 ent natural conditions are often unexpected, and still more 

 often quite inconclusive as a guide to the conditions which make 

 for the welfare of the Grouse. In such cases we must be satis- 

 fied with negative evidence, and in face of some of the beliefs 

 which have been universally accepted in the past, even negative 

 evidence and inconclusive results are not without their value. 

 Hitherto, it has quite naturally been assumed that bad weather 

 in the breeding season is universally destructive to the young 

 stock, and must necessarily mean a bad shooting season, yet 

 from the detailed reports now received it is surprising to find 

 the extent to which this hardy bird may rise superior to mere 

 climatic discomfort. Conversely an apparently perfect breed- 

 ing season is sometimes followed by an unexpected shortage of 

 young birds in August. The reason for these unexpected results 

 must remain a subject for speculation in each case, for in each 



