18 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Flies, spiders, beetles, and greenish caterpillars about f-inch long, as well 



as slugs and chrysalides, have all been found in the crops of chicks. Fresh 



Calluna heather shoots, moss capsules, and tender blaeberry leaves 



young just opened, if they are to be had, are also generally present ; and 



as the young birds grow older heather becomes more and more their 



staple food. 1 



In a chick of a few days old, where the food consisted of small caterpillars, 



there was no grit to be seen in the gizzard ; and, in another, the muscles of 



that organ, with its toughened lining, seemed sufficient to crush the 



Grit found . . . . 



in young soft blaeberry shoots. .But it is the rule to find even in the youngest 

 chick's gizzard a certain small quantity of fine quartz - grit and 

 sand. 2 



When half-grown the crops of those examined contained a large percentage 

 of heather, and the gizzards contained about half the amount of grit that is 

 usually found in old birds, but in smaller fragments. 



Water, as supplied by streams and pools, does not appear to be necessary 

 in the earlier stages where there is plenty of young heather ; insects, the 

 succulent juices of the young heather shoots, and dew seem to provide 

 all the moisture necessary. Broods are often hatched out far from 

 any stream or pool, and they can generally be found within a few yards of 

 the same spot till they are able to fly. On this point, as it affects the hand- 

 rearing of Grouse, a well-known moor-owner writes : " I have never noticed that 

 the young Grouse, when half-grown or older, require more water than what they 

 pick up in the grass in wet weather, and what is sprinkled on the grass or heather 

 at meal times, in dry weather. Old Grouse go to drink two or three times a 

 day at most ; they seem to know how much is good for them ; whilst young 

 Grouse, if allowed access to water, are apt, or almost certain, to drink too much, 

 and scour. This, of course, refers to tame birds." Another of the Committee's 

 correspondents (a gamekeeper on a large moor in central Perthshire) says : 

 " .Regarding water, I have known several broods fetched out 600 yards from the 

 nearest water of any kind, in a dry season ; and they continued to thrive 

 without water for at least three weeks after hatching." 



As the Grouse grows older, the parent birds relax their anxiety for the 

 brood when disturbed, and, although they lie very close, the hen bird no- 

 longer flutters along the ground endeavouring to distract attention. 



Vide chap. iv. p. 73. 2 Ibid., p. 95. 



