62 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



hen are already showing quite a fair growth of white feathers, 

 and the nails have all been shed. The claws are therefore 

 short and rather soft, and the transverse sulcus or groove at 

 the point of detachment is clearly marked. In the wings there 

 may still be a number of primaries to be changed. 



In the convalescent " piner," on the other hand, the case 

 is often very different. She has still a most deplorably bleached 

 and weathered breeding plumage, with worn-out feathers, 

 frayed or ragged, often with saw-toothed edges, showing the 

 unequal effect of wear and tear on the pale buff pigmented and 

 black pigmented parts. The bird in this belated plumage has 

 quite naked legs and feet and long unshed nails, or may at the 

 most be just showing the points of a new growth of feathers 

 through the skin ; and in this state she is conspicuously shabby 

 and ill to look upon in comparison with the splendid plumage 

 recently acquired by her healthy sisters, and by the now almost 

 universally healthy cocks. But the point above all others to be re- 

 membered in this connection is that this hen is convalescent, and 

 still has a couple of months of good food and good weather in 

 which to complete her convalescence before the winter comes. 



If the spring outbreak of disease has been severe that is, 

 if the general conditions of the preceding winter and early 

 spring months have been such as to conduce to a heavy and 

 widespread infection of the Grouse with the larval Tricho- 

 strongylus then both cocks and hens will have been equally 

 infested in April and May. But the breeding season and the 

 concomitant needs of the two sexes are, from April onwards, 

 quite distinct from one another. 



The result of this is that there is often a large mortality 

 of cocks in April and in May, and a much less marked mortality 

 of hens, probably in the proportion of seven or eight cocks to 

 one hen, but definitely occurring in the same two months. 



There is no great mortality from Strongylosis in any other 

 months of the year, and after May the cocks are suddenly 

 relieved and rapidly recover, so that by August there are almost 

 no sick cocks ; the hens, on the other hand, have still two very 



