122 THE GROUSE 



heather suffered from this cause. While 

 hesitating to fasten on unwholesome food 

 or malnutrition as the only cause of the 

 grouse trouble, it is, nevertheless, the case 

 that after years when the growth and 

 bloom of heather have been poor or not 

 up to average disease in grouse has 

 sharply occurred. It was noticed that 

 the serious outbreaks of grouse malady 

 which occurred in 1855-6, 1866-7, and 

 1872-3, all followed a stinted and un- 

 healthy state of the heather. The lesson 

 to be drawn from this is that in seasons 

 when heather has not done well moors 

 might with prudence be more heavily 

 shot. Grouse are never averse to an 

 occasional generous diet of oats or other 

 grains, and it has been said that when 

 they have with too much frequency or 

 excess partaken of this, certainly not 

 natural, but rather for them artificial 

 sustenance, it may have been an excitory 

 of disease. But there is really no reliable 

 evidence of this. 



Still another theory of the coming of 



