CLASSIFICATION AND LIFE HISTORY 19 



way, it is almost certain that the chicks have met their fate 

 by this infantile complaint. 



Coccidiosis as a disease of game birds and poultry is now 

 being rapidly recognised in this country, and the disease is also 

 being investigated in America. 



Still there remains the difficulty that the dead bodies are 

 not found in any numbers ; it must be remembered, however, 

 that the infant Grouse is a small object, and any one who has 

 searched in vain in the heather for a full-grown bird which has 

 fallen to his gun can realise the difficulty of finding a tiny chick 

 upon a moor where the whole stock does not average more than 

 a bird to several acres. Coccidiosis chiefly attacks the birds 

 when they are very small ; the chicks die in the heather, the 

 little carcasses are rarely found, and in a short time they dis- 

 appear altogether for, even if they have not been devoured by 

 vermin or removed by heat, wet, flies, maggots, or burying 

 beetles, the small bones do not make lasting skeletons, and 

 would not be discovered even if the moors were searched. 



In spite of difficulties the field observer and other members 

 of the Committee's scientific staff have by diligent search 

 been able to find a certain number of small dead chicks on the 

 moors; in almost every case the cause of death has been 

 found to be Coccidiosis. Many other cases of Coccidiosis 

 have been received for examination from various parts of 

 Scotland and Yorkshire, or from the Committee's observation 

 area in Surrey. 



Fortunately it is only in exceptional cases that we have 

 to consider the question of a wholesale disappearance of the 

 young stock from pathogenic causes. Under normal circum- 

 stances the Providence that watches over all young things 

 brings to maturity a large percentage of the birds that are 

 hatched ; but Providence may be assisted, and the methods 

 by which it may be assisted are fully discussed in another 

 part of this volume. 1 Suffice it to say that in the earlier stages 

 of the life of the Grouse the state of the moor is of great impor- 



1 Vide chaps, xi., xii., xiv., xv. 



