416 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



about 2,000 acres, was bad with it ; and there was none on the remainder 

 of the moor." 



(i) "I have forwarded to your address a sample of heather that showed 

 signs of being frosted in July last year. It turned a rusty red, and some 

 of it grey between July 8th and 24th. It was on the latter date that I 

 noticed it there would be nearly 2 acres in the patch affected." 



(j) " The damage done on my own estate was not very serious, but in 

 neighbouring places it was muck worse. . . . With regard to the permanency 

 of the damage, I do not think there is much fear. I examined some of the 

 ground as recently as yesterday, and find that even where it has the withered 

 grey look, the twigs are green under the bark ; only in a few cases is the 

 previous season's growth dead, and in no case is the two-year-old growth 

 destroyed. ... I should have stated above that the damage has only occurred 

 where the ground was very cold, wet, and waterlogged the sort of ground 

 on which, even when drained, it is useless to plant forest trees." 



(k) "We think the damage is chiefly, if not entirely, confined to places 

 where the sun strikes during the day, and especially in the morning. . . . My 

 ground faces chiefly north-west and west." 



(1) "With regard to your inquiries on the subject of rusty red heather, we 

 have noticed several small patches of this all over the moor, and the majority of 

 them are to be seen on the south-west and south faces of the hill, and a fair 

 amount was to be seen on the low ground at ... This burned appearance 

 first showed itself during the hot weather in the month of July, and that is 

 the time that it is noticed each year according to keepers and shepherds. It 

 is, of course, useless for Grouse-feeding purposes." 



Now this peculiar and serious condition of heather was, up to a com- 

 paratively recent period, universally attributed to the action of frost, whence 

 the popular name of "frosted heather," and even at the present time this 

 opinion is firmly maintained in some quarters. After a careful investigation 

 of the subject the Committee are now in a position to assert with some degree 

 of confidence that the damage is the work of an insect. My own attention 

 was first drawn to the question in the month of August 1897, when I received 

 from a correspondent in Ayrshire a patch of heather, the shoots of which were 

 brown and withered, while among the roots were a number of small grubs and 

 pupse. My correspondent thought that the damage was caused by these insects, 

 and at the same time he suggested that the diseased condition of heather which 



