182 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Mr Stuart- Wortley writes : " In the pairing season the old warriors come down 

 from the heights, fight with and vanquish the younger ones, and absorb the 

 young hens." l Such efforts combine to bring to an end a very large proportion 

 of cock birds which are more or less exhausted after the winter by poor feeding 

 and the loss of strength due to the presence of intestinal parasites. 



Then follows the moult, an exhausting process under the best conditions, 

 Moulting an< ^ one f r which nature generally makes provision by laying in a 

 m the cock. s f; OC k O f subcutaneous fat. All this is consumed during the growth 

 of the new feathers. 



But in the case of an ill-conditioned Grouse the moult commences with an 

 insufficient supply of fat from which to draw for the growth of the new feathers. 

 The result may be a complete failure to rise to the occasion ; or, if the failure be 

 only partial the old feathers will be retained to some extent, and the new 

 feathers will come slowly, poorly, and sparsely. Bare legs and a poor-looking 

 mixture of old and faded feathers, with a more richly coloured new one here 

 and there, produce a seedy, chequered-looking bird, and to this must be added 

 an air of exhaustion and malaise. Occasionally in the male the summer change 

 of plumage is not completed even by autumn, and feathers of three different 

 plumages may then be found on a single individual. But as the season advances, 

 and good food becomes more abundant, by degrees the moult is completed in 

 a more or less satisfactory manner. The chief troubles are then over for the 

 cock, and he gradually improves in condition to meet the ensuing winter. 



But now to consider the hen, whose lot is certainly less enviable than that 

 of her mate. She also may have struggled through the winter, and while the 

 Taxes to cocks fight over her is quickly putting on fat for an early moult. She 

 henla makes an almost complete change of plumage before laying her eggs 

 in April ; and in this she must consume a portion of her strength. She 

 recuperates in sitting, but feeds only scantily the while. Then her troubles begin 

 to be more pressing, especially if by any mishap she loses her eggs and has to 

 lay and sit a second time. If, however, by the end of June she hatches off, she 

 must still be constantly on the watch for danger to her chicks. In July she has 

 to moult again. Little wonder that by August she is sometimes reduced to the con- 

 dition of a " piner," or that, when the shooting season comes, she is discarded from 

 the day's bag, to be submitted for examination under suspicion of " disease." 



It is the same story precisely as in the case of birds handicapped for life 



1 Macpherson, Fur and Feather Series, "The Grouse," p. 147. 



