The grouse in health and in disease : being the popular edition of the report of the committee of inquiry on grouse disease / edited by A.S. Leslie ; assited by A.E. Shipley.

  • Great Britain. Committee of Inquiry on Grouse Disease.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The grouse in health and in disease : being the popular edition of the report of the committee of inquiry on grouse disease / edited by A.S. Leslie ; assited by A.E. Shipley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    or seven, and the larger ones from ten to twelve, or even fifteen and seventeen ; but in the latter cases it is probable that the eggs may not all be the produce of one bird. In an average year most nests will contain seven or eight eggs. Birds which breed late on the high grounds do not seem to lay fewer eggs than those which breed early in the more sheltered situations.” 1 A correspondent of the Committee in Forfarshire has reported a case of two Grouse hens sitting side by side—each on six eggs in a double nest; and the Committee’s field observer has seen two hens sitting on one nest with twelve eggs. For the following descriptive notes on the eggs of the Red Grouse in his “ Birds of Europe,” Dresser states that he is indebted to Seebohm : “ The ground colour of the eggs of the Grouse is usually a pale olive, spotted and blotched all over with dark red-brown. The spots are frequently so confluent as almost entirely to conceal the ground colour. In fresh-laid eggs the brown is often very red, in some instances almost approaching crimson. It appears to darken as it thoroughly dries, and sometimes almost approaches black. When fresh laid the colour is not very fast, and before the eggs are hatched the beauty of the original colouring is generally very much lessened by large spots coming off altogether, no doubt from the friction of the feathers of the bird when sitting. If the weather is wet Avhen the bird begins to sit this is much more the case. When the colour has once become thoroughly dry it will bear washing in water without injury.”2 In his most recent work Mr Dresser adds : “ When blown and kept for some time, the ground colour fades to buffy white, and the spots and blotches darken in some cases to blackest brown. Those in (Mr Dresser’s) collection measure from 1'60 by 114 to T82 by 132 inches. Mr Jourdain gives the average measure- 1 Seebohm, “ British Birds,” vol. ii., p. 430. London: R. H. Porter, 1885. 2 Dresser, “Birds of Europe,” vol. vii., p. 170. Loudon : published by the author 1871-1881.