WATER 93 



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 seem to know how much is good for them ; while young Grouse, if 

 allowed access to water, are almost certain to drink too much, and scour. 

 This, of course, refers to tame birds." Another correspondent of the Committee, 

 a gamekeeper near Pitlochry in Perthshire, writes : " 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, when rain would no doubt relieve the old 

 bird, which I am of opinion had nothing to drink but dew all that time ; at 

 least I never found young chicks without the parent bird along with them." 



On the other hand, a gentleman in Yorkshire, who successfully reared 

 twenty-four Grouse out of twenty-eight eggs set, says: "They were watered 

 three times a day." And a gamekeeper, whose experience of some of the 

 largest moors in Perthshire has lasted for a lifetime, says: "There must be 

 water, and, where a moor is blest with good springs, there will the Grouse be 

 also. One cannot have too many springs on a moor in dry weather." 



When full-grown there is little doubt that Grouse do drink ; hand-reared 

 birds are seen to drink frequently on a hot day from the supply of fresh water 

 provided for them, and the droppings of nesting birds are always found Evidence 

 near water. Wild birds, in the hot weather of July and August, and in j," a^se 

 the dry, frosty days of winter, often congregate near running water and drmkm g- 

 open streams when other drinking-places are dried up or frozen hard. It is 

 well known that in the summer Grouse often shift entirely from the drier 

 beats of a moor to the well-watered ones, and, on a certain dry, sandy moor 

 near the sea, the young birds die if the artificial drinking- pools are allowed to 

 run dry. The almost unanimous opinion expressed by correspondents favours 

 the view that under natural conditions the adult Grouse go to drink two 

 or three times a day. 



In support of the view that Grouse either never drink, or at least are not 

 dependent upon a supply of drinking water, several arguments are brought 

 forward. It is said that no Grouse has ever been seen to drink, but Arguments 

 when we consider how wild the bird is in its natural state this is not Arouse do 

 surprising; indeed, only very few observers have succeeded in seeing notdrink - 

 the bird in the act of feeding. Another argument used is that from an examina- 

 tion of the alimentary canal no trace of water can be found, and the contents 



