THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



"Cheep- The case is different when the bird is weak and undersized 



Lite birds. as a result of being hatched late. The common custom of 

 sparing " cheepers " in order to give them time to develop as 

 the season advances is one which cannot be too strongly con- 

 demned, for it is now believed that late hatched birds are a 

 serious menace to the health of the moor. 



This real menace has never been sufficiently considered, 

 but would appear to be one of the worst consequences of the 

 loss of first broods, the full result of which is felt far more 

 seriously in the succeeding year than in the season when it 

 occurs. " Cheepers " of August are seriously handicapped for 

 the remainder of their lives. They often apparently come on 

 quickly during the shooting season, but are lacking in bodily 

 vigour and hardness, and compared with the birds that were 

 hatched in May and early June they feel the pinch of winter 

 badly. The hens, exhausted by the double moult and the 

 trials of nesting, succumb in the succeeding spring with untold 

 loss to the moor ; the cocks, undersized and badly nourished 

 by the end of winter, die in still larger numbers owing to the 

 exhaustion consequent upon their efforts to procure and to 

 protect their mates. 



Late broods eventually become the most fertile soil for 

 Strongylosis, which is always potentially dangerous even in 

 healthy birds. This being so, it would obviously be desirable 

 to encourage early nesting, and to save early clutches of eggs 

 from destruction. 



There is, unfortunately, no possibility of encouraging 

 birds to nest early unless by artificial feeding on a considerable 

 scale ; but at least it is possible to avoid the loss of early nests, 

 which is so often the result of burning too late into April. 

 Gamekeepers sometimes speak as though no harm is done 

 if a few early nests are burned over, and as though the second 

 clutches of eggs were every bit as good for the moor as the 

 first hatchings. They may be so far as the shooting of that 

 same season is concerned with good luck as many birds 

 may be brought to the bag ; but for the succeeding season it 



