THE GROUSE DISEASE 



drag, more or less, their feet along the ground ; gener- 

 ally next day, or the day following, this condition 

 becomes more intensified, the birds do not move at 

 all, their eyes are closed, they do not of course feed 

 any more, and soon after the animals are found 

 dead. This disease is known to keepers and pheasant- 

 breeders as the "cramps," but I think it would be 

 more appropriate to call it paralysis, which would be 

 more in harmony with the inability to move, though 

 in reality it is neither the one nor the other. During 

 the two days that I stayed at Blairquhan I saw a con- 

 siderable number of animals thus affected or dead 

 from the disease, and I had the opportunity of making 

 a post-mortem examination on a good number. After- 

 wards Mr. Douglas forwarded to me in London a con- 

 siderable number of young pheasants that had died of 

 the disease, and these also were carefully examined. 

 All the birds were a few days to a few weeks old, the 

 disease occurring most commonly during the second 

 to third week ; and all without exception showed, as 

 the only constant and conspicuous feature, a disease of 

 the bones of the extremities — always of the legs, in 

 some few instances also of the bones at the anterior 

 extremities. The disease may be compared to an 

 acute periostitis and osteomyelitis. The femur of 

 both legs, and the tibia very often, showed either 

 at the upper or the lower end of the shaft, or at 



