GAME-BIRDS 255 



Enemies of Game-Birds 



The weapons of man, however, are not the only 

 agencies at work on the destruction of game-birds. 

 Nature takes a hand now and then. Disease has 

 been known to ravage prairie chickens, ruffed 

 grouse, and quail throughout great areas of terri- 

 tory, almost extirpating the birds from the in- 

 fected regions. The "grouse disease " has wiped 

 out of existence tens of thousands of black game, 

 grouse, and partridge in England and Europe. 

 No less than ten million? wild ducks have died 

 within the last five years in the reaches of Great 

 Salt Lake from an intestinal trouble caused by 

 the chemical constituents of the water. The dead 

 can be counted in the marshes by the thousand ; 

 they drift in great masses upon the lake surface, 

 and the sloughs in some localities cannot be ap- 

 proached because of the horrible stench arising 

 from them. 



Fires, next to disease, account for great num- 

 bers of game-birds. The terrible prairie-fires 

 which at one time swept across the plains car- 

 ried destruction to multitudes of wild chickens. 

 Not only were numerous birds burned, but their 

 nests, eggs, and young were consumed. The 

 great forest conflagrations in Maine and other 

 wooded regions cause the death of thousands of 



