“ Spearbill,’ 
the Heron. 
(129) THE BIRD WORLD. 
day she lays, until there are four, and 
then she begins to sit in earnest, and, to 
her surprise, the Heronry is quite quiet 
and still, broken only by the occasional 
low call of a sitting bird who is being 
fed by her mate. Sometimes “ Spear- 
bill ” takes his turn to sit while “ Long- 
legs ” goes for a short fly and a try for 
fish, but she does not stay long away. 
After three weeks’ steady sitting, the 
eggs begin to crack, and the youngsters 
hatch out, greatly to the wonderment of 
both “ Spearbill ” and “ Longlegs,” who 
hardly know what to make of the curious 
live things in the nest. They feed them, 
however, on the smallest prey they can 
find, and soon the Heronry wakes up to 
its annual nesting din, as all the 
youngsters find their voices, as “ Spear¬ 
bill ” and “ Longlegs ” did two years 
before. And so the game goes on year 
after year, and still the Herons stay and 
the old Monastery is safe. 
ilT 
Grouse Prospects. 
Variable reports are to hand from 
the Grouse moors as to the prospects of 
sport this month; and, although the 
present weather might not be considered 
favourable, the mildness of the spring 
enabled the nesting birds to make a 
good start in the rearing of the families, 
the shooting of which in the autumn 
means the circulation of so many 
thousands of pounds. The Grouse 
season will not be bad, and men are now 
giving good prices for dogs to shoot over ; 
but it is the lowland sport about which 
there is doubt, for the rain this summer 
has meant the drowning of scores of 
broods in the South and Midlands, where 
the downpour has been worst. A bright 
July and August will, however, improve 
the prospects very materially. 
Grouse disease first attracted special 
notice in 1838, but prior to that time it 
was not unknown in Scotland. Many 
theories have been put forward as to its 
cause, viz. overstocking, eating old 
and frosted heather, tape worm, etc., all 
of which seem plausible enough, out 
after due investigation must all be dis¬ 
missed as unsatisfactory. Overstocking 
seems natural and reasonable enough at 
first sight, but how can the circum¬ 
stances be explained that on those moors 
where the stock is at a minimum the 
disease is as virulent and fatal as where 
the birds have been fostered and en¬ 
couraged to the extreme limits? The 
old heather theory is very common, and 
those who hold it advocate burning on 
an extensive scale as a cure. Suther- 
landshire is the hardest burned county 
in Scotland; the burning is done on an 
extensive scale, yet there is no other 
county where disease recurs so often. 
Take the moor of Tressady, where, since 
1892, there has been three attacks of 
disease, with a very moderate stock, 
viz., 1892, 1897, and 1901. Now in 
these years the disease showed first on 
the hardest burned ground, where there 
was practically no old heather, and on 
the ground under the crofters, which 
was not so severely burned, it did not 
show so early, nor assume the same 
proportions, some parts of it not being 
even affected. 
Whether the Commission investiga¬ 
ting the matter will be able to bring forth 
anything practical remains to oe seen. 
It is impossible to place too much im¬ 
portance on the vital necessity of change 
of blood, which, together with propel 
management of the heather, will go a 
long way towards lessening the malady. 
If it is not entirely prevented, a moor 
that’is well managed will recover itself 
after an attack in a far shorter time than 
one where proper attention is not paid 
to the heather. Disease does not recur 
so often on moors that are regularly 
driven as it does where it is all dogging, 
for the reason that driving mixes the 
birds, which thus get a change of blood. 
Grouse are very domestic in their habits, 
never straying far from where hatched 
if left to themselves, so that on dogging 
moors they never mix to the same* extent 
unless a severe winter comes to pack 
them together, which is the only way 
they get a change of blood. This seems 
sufficient explanation of the fact that 
disease invariably breaks out after a 
succession of mild winters, and goes a 
long way to prove that in-breeding is the 
chief cause. 
