Flies, spiders, beetles, and greenish caterpillars about ¾-inch long, as well as slugs and chrysalides, have all been found in the crops of chicks. Fresh Food of
young
Grouse. Calluna heather shoots, moss capsules, and tender blackberry leaves just opened, if they are to be had, are also generally present; and as the young birds grow older heather becomes more and more their staple food.[1]
In a chick of a few days old, where the food consisted of small caterpillars, there was no grit to be seen in the gizzard; and, in another, the muscles of Grit found
in young
Grouse. that organ, with its toughened lining, seemed sufficient to crush the soft blacberry shoots. But it is the rule to find even in the youngest chick's gizzard a certain small quantity of fine quartz-grit and
sand.[2]
When half-grown the crops of those examined contained a large percentage of heather, and the gizzards contained about half the amount of grit that is usually found in old birds, but in smaller fragments.
Water, as supplied by streams and pools, does not appear to be necessary in the earlier stages where there is plenty of young heather; insects, the Water. succulent juices of the young heather shoots, and dew seem to provide all the moisture necessary. Broods are often hatched out far from any stream or pool, and they can generally be found within a few yards of the same spot till they are able to fly. On this point, as it affects the hand-rearing of Grouse, a well-known moor-owner writes: "I have never noticed that the young Grouse, when half-grown or older, require more water than what they pick up in the grass in wet weather, and what is sprinkled on the grass or heather at meal times, in dry weather. Old Grouse go to drink two or three times a day at most; they seem to know how much is good for the ; whilst young Grouse, if allowed access to water, are apt, or almost certain, to drink too much, and scour. This, of course, refers to tame birds." Another of the Committee's correspondents (a gamekeeper on a large moor in central Perthshire) says: "Regarding water, I have known several broods fetched out 600 yards from the nearest water of any kind, in a dry season; and they continued to thrive without water for at least three weeks after hatching."
As the Grouse grows older, the parent birds relax their anxiety for the brood when disturbed, and, although they lie very close, the hen bird no longer flutters along the ground endeavouring to distract attention.
