STOCK 435 



is likely to be the worst thing that could happen, since it 

 breeds weakly birds that will perhaps manage to survive an 

 open winter, only to disseminate disease in the following year, 

 if they do not actually succumb to it themselves. 



There are, moreover, reasons based on actual experience Second 

 why second clutches must always produce a smaller proportion 

 of fertile eggs than first clutches. The following account 

 comes directly from a well-known moor proprietor as to the 

 result of hatching three clutches of eggs, each clutch consisting 

 of the first eggs laid by three different hen Grouse. All were 

 consecutively " fertilised " by one and the same Grouse cock. 

 The eggs had thus every possible chance, on the mother's 

 side, of producing the full number of healthy chicks in every 

 sitting. 



The first hen having paired off with this healthy two-year-old 

 cock Grouse, sat and hatched ten chickens out of ten eggs. 

 A second hen then paired off with the same cock ; not immedi- 

 ately, but some time after the first hen had begun to sit. 



This second hen laid eight eggs, but only four were fertile, 

 and four chicks only appeared. The same cock again, after 

 a similar interval, paired off with a third hen, which then laid 

 eight eggs, but not one of them was fertile. Could there be 

 stronger evidence for the superior value of a first clutch of 

 eggs ? Under natural conditions the first clutch receives the 

 full value of the cock bird with the best the hen can produce 

 when in her best condition. Suppose that this nest is burned, 

 or still worse, suppose that the hen has been sitting for some 

 weeks, and is then forced to desert by stress of weather or 

 disturbance by vermin. We have now, instead of , half-spent 

 cock with a hen at her best, a half-spent cock with a hen already 

 exhausted and short of her stock of subcutaneous nesting fat 

 to the extent of several ounces. She has produced seven or 

 eight eggs weighing an ounce apiece, and she now produces 

 half a dozen more. Not only are these six eggs fewer in 

 number than the first clutch, but they are almost certain to 

 be not all fertile. And what is even worse, there is the male 



