298 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



little practical value to moor-owners and sportsmen, since they 

 only go to prove that the welfare of the Grouse is in the hands 

 of Providence, and that there is nothing that man can do to 

 improve the spring growth of heather or moderate the rainfall 

 of May ; but apart altogether from the general necessity of 

 knowing the natural conditions which affect the bird, it is 

 believed that the ascertainment of the foregoing facts may be 

 of some real practical value to game preservers. 



It has already been pointed out that the condition of the 

 heather may be a useful guide as to the manner in which the 

 stock should be regulated in accordance with the probable food 

 supply available for wintering ; but it is also hoped that by 

 proving the supreme importance of good winter food on the 

 health of the bird, owners and their servants may be encouraged 

 to give more attention to the question of heather culture. It 

 is true that in a poor heather year the heather on a well-burned 

 moor will suffer equally in proportion with that on a badly- 

 burned moor, but the total area of winter feeding on the former 

 is so much greater than in the latter, that the well-burned moor 

 can better stand the strain of a lean harvest, and its stock of 

 Grouse will manage to struggle through the winter without 

 serious loss ; while on less well managed ground the mortality 

 may be very heavy. Heather culture is better understood and 

 more extensively practised in England than it is in Scotland, and 

 to this is probably due the fact that the health of the Grouse in 

 that country does not appear to have been so seriously affected 

 by the bad heather crop of 1907 as it was in Scotland whenever 

 the heather crop failed. On those moors in Scotland where 

 heather burning has been carried out on proper lines it is found 

 that the stock is not so hard hit, and always makes a more 

 rapid recovery after a bad heather year, than on moors where 

 the heather has been neglected. 



