170 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



in a shooting season ; but though the crops and gizzards of Grouse do occasionally 

 contain a lead pellet or two, they are sufficiently uncommon to be a matter 

 of curiosity to the finder rather than a cause of sickness to the birds. ^ 



The following is an account of what was supposed to be accidental poisoning 

 of Grouse by sulphate of Barium. It is given by Macpherson in the " Fauna 

 of Lakeland."^ Quoting John Borrow as writing from Alston in 1837, he 

 says : " In consequence of the Grouse in some parts of this neighbourhood having 

 been unable to procure sand (owing to the depth of snow), they have picked up 

 particles of the sulphate of Barites, which appears to have been the cause of a 

 very great mortality among them. A person whom I can depend on assures 

 me he saw not less than forty brace dead upon the moors a few days since." 



One may, I think, legitimately wonder whether this mortality was not due 

 rather to a grit-starvation, accompanying and augmenting the evils of food- 

 starvation, which is always present to some extent with deep snow. 



The Rev. E. A. Woodruffe Peacock gives cathartic flax as a cause of death 

 by violent purging to young Pheasants ; but no case of poisoning in Grouse can 

 be attributed to the consumption of any plants found growing upon a moor. 



Several cases of abscesses and septic poison of the leg, which resembled 

 Abscesses " bumblefoot " and "whitlow," were sent up for examination during 



and septic 



poison. 1908 {see Plate XXXII.). 



No. 1G81 was a cock Grouse of the year, shot purposely on August 25th, 

 1908, on account of the condition of its body and feet. The foot of another 

 Damage Grousc was afi"ected in the same way though to a less degree. This 

 and leg. bird Weighed 15^- ounces, and its condition was fair. Both feet were 

 much swollen with collections of caseous pus. The figures shown on Plate XXXII. 

 were drawn from the bird when quite recently dead. It was killed " on an 

 exceptionally dry juniper hill" in Inverness-shire. There were no abnormalities 

 in any other part of the bird, except the usual infestment of Trichostrongylus ; 

 but the organs were all apparently healthy. 



No. 1744 was an adult cock Grouse shot in September, in Perthshire, 

 weighing 19^ ounces, and somewhat tliin. It exhibited the usual infestment 

 with Hymenolepis, Davainea, and Trichostrongylus, but was otherwise healthy 

 except for a swelling of one of the toe joints, very similar to the case just 

 described (No. 1681), but not symmetrical. 



' Vide Macdonald, "Grouse Disease," p. 160. 



^ Vide Reverend H. A. Macpherson, " A Vertebrate Fauna of Lakeland," p. 323. Edinburgh : D. Douglas, 

 1892. 



