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

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 34, Vol. I, 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. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 66127
Author: Various
Release Date: Aug 24, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: William and Robert Chambers
Publication Date: 1853
Publisher Country: United Kingdom