Effects of dietary supplements of newly growing heather on the breeding of captive red grouse

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Abstract
1. The effects of dietary supplements of heather at different stages of growth on the breeding of captive red grouse were studied.2. A supplement of heather which was beginning to grow in spring stimulated captive red grouse to lay more eggs and to lay at a faster rate than birds given a supplement of dormant winter heather.3. Although laying was stimulated, no significant effect on the date of laying, the hatchability of the eggs or the survival of the young was demonstrated; however, the possibility of such effects occurring in the wild is not ruled out.4. The experimental effect occurred although the heather formed only a small proportion of a largely artificial diet, which provided a high plane of nutrition in terms of known nutrients.5. The effect is attributed to an unidentified factor contained in the new growth.