174 THE GEOUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



may be killed by late snowstorms, as in 1864 on Glenshea ; but such occur- 

 rences are very rare. The power of resistance of the egg to frost is dealt with 

 in another chapter. 1 



Still, however little direct harm excessive cold may do to Grouse, the 

 indirect harm is often very great, and there is no doubt that late frosts in 

 the north of England and in the south of Scotland, catching the heather 

 after the sap has begun to rise, often reduce the available supply of 

 food. 



It may be well to review what has been written from time to time as 

 "Frosted * * ne en?ec t that " frosted heather" is supposed to have upon the 



heather." G rouse . 



In Macdonald's "Grouse Disease" a Scottish forester is quoted as having 

 stated that during a certain epidemic there was no " Grouse Disease " all along the 

 sea coast where the heather does not suffer by frost, while 10 miles or so inland, 

 beyond where the sea exercised its influence, there the " Grouse Disease " began. 

 It is there stated that the dissection of Grouse that had died of the disease proved 

 that their crops contained frost-bitten heather. 2 And, again, in a quotation from 

 Colquhoun's paper, it is stated that in Perthshire, in 1852 and 1853, the heather 

 was excellent, and in consequence there was no disease, while in 1854, 1855, and 



1856 the heather was frosted without snow, and there was bad disease. Again in 



1857 the heather was excellent, and there was no disease ; and so on. 3 Speedy, 

 however, says : " Heather which has been killed by frost and entirely divested 

 of its nutritive qualities is about the most unlikely thing for Grouse to feed 

 upon." 4 He says, too, that after bad disease there are more survivors on the 

 high exposed heather-frosted parts of the moor than on the lower sheltered 

 localities, and that "'Grouse Disease' has not been peculiar to those seasons 

 when the heather was most generally frost - bitten, or when it had not 

 been covered and protected by snow. . . . Some of the most fatal visitations 

 have been preceded by winters more remarkable for mildness than severity." 



The statements contained in the above quotations from Macdonald and 

 Colquhoun are probably due to a misuse of the term " frosted heather," for there 

 is a condition of heather which is not rightly called "frosted heather," and it will 



1 Vide chap. ii. pp. 10-12, vol. ii. Appendix H. 



2 Macdonald, " Grouse Disease," p. 40. 



3 Ibid., p 122. 



4 Tom Speedy, " Sport in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland," p. 202. Second Edition. Edinburgh 

 and London : William Blackwood & Sons, 1886. 



