GROUSE DYING FROM WANT OF PURE WATER 231 



been prevalent, and so I have come to the conclusion 

 that whatever causes disease may spring from, it is 

 not the heather which is in fault, unless the burning 

 has been grossly neglected, but the water. 



After a splendid hatching-season I have frequently 

 found both young and old birds dead from sheer want 

 of pure water, and their livers diseased from drinking 

 at places where the water was putrid ; and I have seen 

 moors without a drop of pure water on them for miles 

 and miles, and nothing for the birds to drink but the 

 filthy, stagnant green liquid which had here and there 

 collected. Surely, if it is thought worth while to pay 

 such enormous rents for moors, the lairds who let them 

 might go to the very small expense which the cleaning 

 of these peat-hags, etc., would entail ; and it would 

 be an easy matter to supply the moors with pure water 

 by means of pipes laid on from some of the many lochs, 

 which are generally within a distance sufficiently near 

 to admit of such a plan being easily carried out. Flat 

 tanks situated below each other, and feeding each other, 

 could easily be arranged so as to supply every part of 

 the moor with fresh pure water. Tile-pipes open at 

 the top are not only of great service, but are in some 

 instances necessary, where the water is inclined rather 

 to run into the ground than down the burns. Open 

 drains should never be permitted on any moor, for the 

 young broods constantly fall into them, and being too 

 weak to get out, are either drowned or are taken by 

 the weasels and crows and such-like enemies, or, being 

 lost by the parent birds, die a lingering death. 



Up to the time they are twelve days old grouse are 

 very tender, but after that period they can be trusted 

 to get on fairly well, provided there is a sufficient 



