Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 34, Vol. I, August 23, 1884

No. 34.—Vol. I.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1884.
Exact statistics cannot be obtained of the number of grouse annually killed upon the Moors; but estimates of a reliable kind have occasionally been published, from which we learn, that as many as five hundred thousand annually reach the markets, in addition to the numbers given away as presents or ‘consumed on the premises.’ That this figure, large as it may appear to those who are not well versed in sporting matters, is not exaggerated, will be apparent when we mention on good authority, that on some days of August as many as sixteen thousand grouse (single birds) have been received by the London wholesale dealers; and that for days in succession, supplies of from two to ten thousand birds reach the metropolis to be sold to the retailers. But no matter how great may be the slaughter on the grouse-moors in any given year, the death-roll of the following season is frequently even greater. The grouse, in common with many other birds, protected or otherwise, is endowed with great powers of reproduction; and even when disease has on some occasions played such havoc with the birds, that on some vast stretches of heather only half-a-dozen brace may have been left to multiply and replenish, yet, in two or three seasons they will have increased with such rapidity as to be more numerous on that ground than they ever were before. Stories of nests being seen with as many as fifteen, sixteen, and eighteen eggs have often gone the round of the newspapers; but the usual number of eggs annually laid by each female may be fixed at not less than from seven to nine.
But the chief question is not so much the number of eggs produced, as the number of birds which are hatched and the percentage of these that become food for powder. The grouse has a hundred enemies lying in wait to do mischief—to destroy the nests, suck the eggs, or kill the tender brood; nor are the parents spared, when the enemy is their superior in strength and cunning. Let all who have the chance walk the heather in June and July with an observant eye, and note the damage which has been done during the breeding season by foes, both quadruped and biped. See yonder carrion crows, how they sweep down on those spots of heather which are populous with nests and young ones! And what a delicious titbit for stoat and weasel do the day-old ‘cheepers’ afford! Many a gallant battle will be fought by the male grouse on behalf of his mate and her eggs, as he does not hesitate to defend them from the greedy crow, nor is afraid even of the bloodsucking weasel. Whenever danger threatens the home of his little family, the cock-grouse is up in arms, ready to do all he can for the protection of madame and her chicks. Before twenty-four hours have elapsed, the nest in which the young ones have been hatched seems to be no longer necessary for rearing purposes, and is consequently forsaken; and the parents and their family take to a nomadic life, travelling about with a rapidity which is wonderful, considering the tender age of the brood. It is also a curious circumstance that one or two birds of almost every nest come to maturity at an earlier date than their brothers and sisters—the percentage that displays this precocity of growth being about two out of every seven; and we have been told by shepherds that these are ‘the cock’s own birds.’