416 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



(3) Certain facts and figures gleaned from the records of 

 individual moors. 



The term " stock " is used indiscriminately to mean both 

 the number of birds on a moor in summer when the coveys 

 are unbroken, and the number of breeding birds which eke 

 out a precarious living in the winter and early spring months. 



For the purposes of this chapter the term " stock " will 

 be used in the latter sense only. 



It has been shown in previous chapters that it is in the 

 early spring that disease invariably appears, it is therefore 

 at that period, and the period immediately preceding it, that 

 the question of numbers is of real significance. 



The reason for this is not far to seek. During the months 

 of May, June, and July the fresh young shoots of heather 

 are probably more nourishing than at any other time of the 

 year even the oldest and most useless heather is not without 

 some food value. In July, August, and September berries 

 are added to the Grouse's diet, and in the late autumn and 

 early winter the seed or fruit of the heather is largely eaten. 

 In fact, it may be said that from the beginning of May to the 

 middle of the following January the food supply, even on the 

 worst moors, is almost inexhaustible, and during this period 

 the ground is capable of supporting a stock far larger than it 

 could possibly carry during the subsequent three months. 

 If, therefore, a limit of stock is fixed for March and April, it 

 is sufficiently plain that that limit can be carried with safety 

 all through the year. 



While it is impossible to give any exact number of pairs 

 of birds that 1,000 acres will carry in any specified district, 

 it will probably be interesting to many of our readers to learn 

 that, broadly speaking, the number of birds to the acre is 

 curiously constant over wide tracts of similarly situated ground. 

 In Yorkshire and Lancashire there are exceptional moors 

 which carry a pair of Grouse to 2 acres ; but in the north of 

 England, generally, one pair to 4 or 6 acres is considered a 

 safe winter stock on fully-developed moors. In Scotland the 



