THE GROUSE DISEASE. 29^ 



disease, for lie adds ratlier naively ' lie can see 

 no other way of accounting for it.' 



But this is not niucli more logical than the 

 gamekeeper's argument, who told the Eev. Mr. 

 Tristram that ' he was sure the cuckoos turned 

 into hawks in the winter, for if not what became 

 of them ? ' and it does not seem to strike Mr. 

 Gray that if his argument is sound we should 

 have had a ' partridge disease ' also long ago. 



A wounded bird, in our opinion, invariably 

 either dies, generally in a few hours, certainly 

 within a few days, or perfectly recovers. We 

 do not allude to such an injury as a broken leg. 

 The loss of a leg is a serious afiair to a pheasant, 

 who has to scratch to a certain extent for his 

 living, but not of much consequence to a grouse. 

 But the law detur fortiori steps in, and either 

 bird has but little chance of obtaining a mate. 

 He is hunted away by the other males, and 

 must retire as fast as his one leg will carry him. 



Even among men after our wars, though 

 we see many whose constitutions are shattered 



