THE WAYS OF GROUSE 95 



The greatest number of eggs are laid during the 

 first fortnight in May, though a good many may be 

 laid in April if the weather is favourable. Incuba- 

 tion lasts twenty-four days, and the critical time for 

 the young birds is during the first fortnight of their 

 existence. If during the month of June the 

 weather happens to be cold and wet, numbers 

 of chicks perish, and unless second broods 

 are reared, a marked deficit will be observed in the 

 supply of Grouse when the shooting season comes 

 round. Even the old birds are affected by the state 

 of the weather at nesting time, for on this depends 

 the condition of the heather tops on which they 

 chiefly subsist. The quantity consumed by each 

 bird daily is surprising. The writer once took from 

 the crop of a hen Grouse a mass of fresh heath tops 

 weighing 2^ oz. At this rate, to support 1000 

 brace of Grouse a moor would have to yield nearly a 

 ton of heather tops per week. What a demand must 

 be made on Dame Nature to keep up this supply, 

 and how important that the weather should conduce 

 to a healthy and continuous crop ! No wonder that 

 the Grouse should suffer when the heather is blighted 

 by late frosts ! 



Fortunately, they do not depend entirely upon 

 this kind of food, for, although they feed largely 

 upon the fresh tops of the common ling [Calhma 

 vulgaris) and the fine-leaved heath {Erica cinerea), 

 which are reduced to pulp by the action of the 

 gizzard, they get plenty of insect food in summer, 

 especially caterpillars, and subsist largely on the fruit 

 of the bilberry, cranberry, and crowberry [Empetrum 



