OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD OF GROUSE 71 



heather is good, and the supply sufficient, the stock will be well nourished 

 and healthy, even on a moor where there are no berries or other miscellaneous 

 kinds of food. 



Heather then is the essential basis on which the Grouse depends, and 

 the importance of the plant is so great that it may be permitted to give a short 

 description of the phases through which it passes during the seasons of the year. 



Beginning with the months of early spring, it will be seen from Table III. that 

 in April the Grouse's diet consists of an equal quantity of fresh green heather 

 and of brown "winter" heather. The former is more nutritious than winter 

 the latter, but even the brown winter heather is better than nothing, heather - 

 and is to be distinguished from withered dead heather which Grouse never eat. 



The fresh green heather so desirable for the food of Grouse does not 

 necessarily represent the young shoots of the spring growth, for these do 

 not generally appear till May, but rather the evergreen foliage which the 

 plant carries upon its lower branches throughout the winter. No one who 

 casually examines a Grouse-moor in midwinter can realise that the dull 

 brown weather - beaten scrub conceals on its more sheltered twigs a luxuriant 

 growth of vivid green shoots : these green shoots are far more 

 numerous on short close heather than on the long overgrown heather versus long 



t it. i i i . -,L heather. 



so common on many moors, for as the plant increases in height it 

 becomes more open in its growth and more susceptible to the blighting effects 

 of frost and cold winds. 



In cases where the heather has attained a height of several feet 

 the shelter is so greatly reduced that it is sometimes difficult to find any 

 green shoots at all in winter unless the weather has been unusually mild ; 

 such long overgrown heather is of practically no value as winter food for 

 Grouse (see PI. xxiu., Fig. 1). This type of long and apparently luxuriant 

 heather is very common on the west coast of Scotland, and in many districts 

 in the central Highlands, and probably accounts for the fact that these districts 

 carry a comparatively small stock of Grouse. In other districts the heather 

 seems to have developed a short, close habit of growth to the uninitiated it 

 would appear to be stunted and poor ; yet it is in the districts where 

 this dwarf type of heather is common that Grouse appear to thrive type of 

 in the largest numbers. The hills are covered with a close carpet of 

 vegetation having a smooth level surface which may be compared to a well- 

 clipped yew hedge this level surface forms a canopy of shelter from frost, 



