84 Grouse Disease. [Sess 



if by a liery scourge, leaving few parts of the country unscathed 

 by its desolating influence. For virulence and prevalence in all 

 parts of Scotland, the grouse disease of that year waS quite 

 unprecedented ; and whether it was a new kind of disease, 

 or the former disease in a more aggravated shape, competent 

 scientific authorities were divided in opinion. In previous 

 attacks the birds were all externally wasted and " draggled," as 

 if they had been starved to death ; and a characteristic of the 

 disease was the plucked appearance about the eyes and legs, — 

 grouse in a healthy state being feathered to the claws. I must 

 confess my inability to explain why, on their being smitten 

 with disease, the legs should so speedily become denuded of 

 feathers. 



Second, as to the origin of the disease. Though I have read 

 almost every article that has been written upon this subject, 

 and spared no amount of effort to ascertain the originating 

 cause of this dire calamity, I must confess that I am as yet 

 ignorant of its primary origin. ^Notwithstanding the several 

 conflicting theories that have, from time to time, been dogmati- 

 cally submitted, and the pretentious claims of self-contident 

 discoverers of the cause of the malady under discussion, I am 

 persuaded that those remote forces, or germs, which first assail 

 the healthy bird, are up to the present hour a profound mystery. 

 What may be the results of the experiments and investigations 

 undertaken by M. Pasteur I shall not anticipate ; but if he 

 shall be able to solve this mysterious problem, he, with the 

 Editor of ' Land and Water,' will have earned the gratitude, not 

 merely of naturalists and sportsmen, but of the entire commun- 

 ity. There are those superficial thinkers who direct attention 

 to the parasites which are found in incredible numbers in 

 diseased grouse, and who triumphantly point to these as the 

 cause of death. More recent discoverers point to the unhealthy 

 condition of the blood, and affirm this to be the cause of death. 

 But why those parasites ? and why that condition of the blood ? 

 are questions which press for solution, in the absence of which 

 we have no explanation worthy of the name. The eating of 

 frosted heather, overstocking, the disturbance of the balance of 

 nature, wet seasons, dry seasons, feeding on corn in late 

 harvests, and the outrageous theory of the grouse picking up 

 lead pellets on heavily shot moors, are each in their turn sub- 



