234 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



all young animals of other kinds, is proteid. Young birds of 

 all kinds take it in the form of insects, or artificial substitutes. 

 That little grouse begin at once to eat heather is true, but it 

 has never been proved that they can be reared on heather and 

 nothing else. On the other hand, it has been proved that they 

 can be reared without heather, provided they get plenty of 

 insect food. They appear to be almost the easiest of game 

 birds to rear, provided they have leave to help themselves to 

 the insects of the fields, or are supplied with crissel and ants' 

 eggs by hand. For these reasons the author has arrived at 

 the opinion that, provided the young grouse could be supplied 

 with proteid (insects) for the first three weeks of life, the 

 heather is sufficient to support ten times the numbers found 

 upon the moors in most cases. Of course this could only be 

 done by hand rearing of the birds. But as the grouse seem to 

 lay more readily in confinement than partridges, and as these 

 latter most particular birds have, by the French system, been 

 doubled and doubled again, there seems to be no reason why 

 grouse should not be increased in the same way. 



It may be said that disease would stop anything of the kind, 

 but those who advocate the increase of grouse to shoot by the 

 decrease of the parent stock have, it is to be hoped, had their 

 innings. It can be proved that where breeding grouse are kept 

 up to the highest point, there also they are the most healthy. 



The author has doubts whether it is desirable to increase 

 the hand rearing of game ; but in a book on shooting and game 

 preservation the ethics of sport are not practical if they limit 

 production in any way. 



The red grouse (Lagopus scoticus) may be shot from the 

 morning of the I2th of August to the evening of the loth of 

 December. Heather burning is legal at all times in England, 

 but only from 1st of November to loth of April in Scotland, 

 which is another means by which an Act of Parliament has 

 damaged the interests of the grouse shooter, since it generally 

 happens that not enough heather burning can be done in the 

 winter months, and September and October are quite as 

 necessary burning months as March itself. 



