404 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



The sides of burns and streams are most important features on a moor ; 

 they are the favourite nesting places of Grouse, they afford shelter during storms, 

 Bums and anc ^ are places where food can be obtained in times of snow. They 

 streams. should be carefully burned in very small patches, special care being 

 taken to clear up the immediate burn - side and prevent its being used as a 

 shelter for vermin, particularly for stoats, who otherwise use it as a convenient 

 covered way to reach their prey. 



It is hardly necessary to point out that in burning a moor the keeper 

 Burning must consider the method in which the shooting is carried out. In the 

 for sport. cage Q f jj e driving moor broad belts should be burned immediately in 

 the rear and patches immediately in front of the butts to facilitate the "picking 

 up " of Grouse ; settling ground with good cover should be left in the direction 

 towards which it is intended to drive the birds. In the case of " dogging " 

 moors, favourite banks should have a special allowance of long heather into 

 which the birds can be worked at the end of the day. In deer forests " the 

 beds " on which deer lie on in the sheltered corries should be lightly burned. 



Heather can be burned at all times of the year in England. In Scotland, 

 by statute, heather-burning is confined to the period from November 



Limitation ' 



of heather- 1st to April 10th. On high wet moors an extension of the period to 



burning. 



April 25th can be obtained. In Wales, by custom, burning is usually 

 carried on during the spring months. 



As soon as it was established that the health of the Grouse depended not 

 only on the distribution of edible heather, but also on the total extent of the 

 Autumn- su pply> ^ became a matter of primary interest to the Committee to 

 bummg. ^ ec i(j e whether in their opinion the burning season should be extended, 

 and how the results of autumn- and spring-burning were to be compared. 



The investigation was begun by sending an inquiry-paper to correspondents, 

 asking for their experiences of autumn-burning ; the time taken for heather to 

 grow again when springing from the root and from seed respectively ; the opinion 

 of sheep farmers as to the merits of the two methods and the character of soil 

 least and most suitable for autumn-burning, based on a comparison of results 

 obtained. In neighbourhoods where heather had never been regularly burned 

 in autumn, correspondents were asked to burn patches in spring and autumn 

 side by side and to compare the results. 



The idea was intelligently taken up and thoroughly worked out, from the 

 south of Wales to the north of the Highlands. 



