The Red Grouse Hand-Rearing. 119 



and easy of accomplishment, but for red grouse reliance 

 must be placed on bought and borrowed eggs to furnish 

 the regular supply, while unset deserted nests, if properly 

 looked after, will provide an additional one. Although the 

 red grouse in its natural state is a wild shy bird, yet the 

 effects of preservation and the turning away of hand-reared 

 birds have together contributed to render them less scary 

 and alarmed at the signs of human presence ; hence we 

 often find nests close up to outlying homesteads, shepherds' 

 and keepers' cottages, and near the main roads, subject to 

 all the incidental bustle and disturbance. Very often such 

 nests are known only to the keeper, and yet get disturbed 

 often before the full number of eggs has been deposited, 

 sometimes after the incubating process has commenced. 

 It should be a rule for anyone seriously disturbing a nest 

 to immediately report the occurrence, and if this were done 

 many a sitting might be saved, and hand-reared, instead of 

 being lost. It will also occasionally occur that in the 

 endeavours of a hen bird to divert attention from her 

 brood, she falls a victim to some sheep dog. In this case, 

 if the young be very recently brought off, they should be 

 placed under some hen and reared instead of being left to 

 their fate upon the moor. A large number of grouse might 

 be saved every year were a better understanding cultivated 

 between sheep farmers and grouse preservers. We shall 

 return to this matter in a subsequent chapter. 



