1886-87.] Groiise Disease. 83 



ical outbreaks of disease among the grouse with concern. For 

 the last quarter of a century I have been interested in study- 

 ing the haunts, habits, and peculiarities of all kinds of game in 

 Scotland, as well as the ravages of this malignant distemper 

 among grouse. I therefore propose to deal shortly with the 

 history and origin of the grouse disease, and to add a few words 

 in the way of suggesting a remedy for it. 



First, as to the history of the disease. It is difficult to say 

 when this dreaded malady first made its appearance, but so 

 early as in the 'Sporting Magazine' for October 1817, a para- 

 graph appeared stating that " an extraordinary disease has 

 lately spread more havoc among the grouse in the north of Scot- 

 land than the double-barrelled guns of the numerous sports- 

 men. The birds are found dead on the hills in great numbers, 

 and in a state of extenuation, as if they had perished from 

 hunger." It would be a mistake to suppose that the disease did 

 not prevail prior to this period. Indeed it may have exhibited 

 itself centuries before. This is by no means improbable, in 

 view of the considerations that the value of grouse and grouse 

 moors was then of little account, and that the means of dissem- 

 inating information were at that time of a meagre kind. Be 

 that as it may, it is now a matter of history that since the time 

 referred to there have been periodic visitations of the epidemic, 

 and, though differing in many respects, it is similar in this, 

 that it is generally fatal in its character. In 1838 the disease 

 attracted considerable attention south of the Forth, proving 

 specially virulent in Lanarkshire and on the western extremities 

 of the Pentland range. Again, in 1867, there was a more wide- 

 spread visitation, the malignant and destructive character of 

 which stimulated an inquiry into its nature and causes; but, 

 like all subsequent investigations, this one was without any 

 practical result, in so far as the remote or originating cause of 

 the distemper was concerned. The next serious recurrence of 

 the epidemic was in 1873. In the preceding year grouse were 

 exceptionally numerous, but so fatal was the visitation that 

 whole tracts of country were swept by the plague. The first 

 time the disease obtruded itself upon my personal attention was 

 in 1867, in that wild and mountainous tract of moorland 

 between Blair Athole and Kingussie. On that occasion it 

 proved alarmingly fatal, sweeping whole mountain ranges as 



