168 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



extent on each foot, suggests frost-bite as the cause ; or at any rate some 

 form of gangrene rather than steel traps. A likely explanation is the 

 strangulation of toes, sometimes even of feet, in infancy by the tightening of 

 strands of sheep's wool accidentally wound round them. This is a common 

 accident with Lapwings. 



An instance of the death of Grouse in a vermin trap may be recorded, in 

 which two healthy cocks fighting in the spring accidentally came together into 

 a " Samson " trap, and were simultaneously killed. 



No. 1606, a cock Grouse of 18|: ounces, was found dead on July 13th, 1908. 

 There was a very little Calluna heather and Blaeberry leaf and stem in the 

 Dama-'eto crop. The bird had probably found difficulty in obtaining sufficient 

 ^'^'' food for the lower bill was split and curved, forming an unhandy 



instrument for plucking heather. The death by starvation, however, had been 

 hastened by Helminthiasis. Davainea was abundant ; Hymenolepis filled the 

 duodenum, which was purplish red, very congested, with engorged villi within, 

 and engorged venules without ; while the cajca were excessively congested 

 within and without, and Trichostrongylus was present in great numbers. 

 This bird would very probably have recovered during the summer but for 

 the additional handicap of its damaged bill. It had survived the two months 

 of highest mortality, April and May. 



Many interesting cases have also been recorded of recovery from flesh wounds 

 either by shot, or by barbed wire, and the following have come under the notice 

 of the Inquiry : — 



No. 1242 represented a long standing leakage of the crop, due to a wound 

 through the skin and crop- wall. Owing to constant use of the crop, and to 

 Damage to ^^® alternate distension and contraction of the overlying skin, the 

 °''°P' adhesions between the edges of the skin and crop-wall had become 



permanent before there was any chance of the openings in either being closed. 

 Bits of heather pressed constantly between the lips of the wound had prevented 

 healing, and had defeated the efforts made by the crop to pass all the food into 

 the gizzard. The bird had therefore to eat more than the normal amount to 

 make good a chronic wastage, and this accounts for the very abnormal dis- 

 tention of the crop which often characterises cases of the kind. 



No. 1627 is another case of the same nature. 



Either or both of these last two cases may have resulted from shot wounds, 



