116 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Results of 

 Com- 

 mittee's 

 investiga- 

 tion. 



Minor dis- 

 eases of 

 Grouse. 



sufficiently to classify them systematically. With a view to 

 defining the main divisions under which the next chapters are 

 arranged, it may be well at this stage to give in anticipation 

 a brief summary of the conclusions at which the Committee 

 has arrived. 



The Committee is of opinion : (1) That the sickness which 

 has in the past caused " Grouse Disease " among the great 

 majority of adult birds is a single disease with clearly defined 

 characteristics of its own ; (2) and (3) it follows that if the two 

 forms of " Grouse Disease " hitherto described as distinct 

 diseases are, in fact, one and the same disease, there is no longer 

 any need to differentiate between them ; (4) that " Grouse 

 Disease " is not due to an acute infectious pneumonia caused 

 by the presence in the lung of Klein's Bacillus ; (5) that adult 

 " Grouse Disease " is caused by the presence of Cobbold's 

 Trichostrongylus in large numbers in the caeca ; (6) that another 

 form of disease in Grouse exists which has hitherto escaped 

 notice. This disease is caused by the presence of Eimeria 

 (Coccidium) avlum in the alimentary tract, and is referred to 

 in the following pages by the name of " Coccidiosis." It is 

 improbable that Coccidiosis can have been responsible for any 

 of the outbreaks of so-called " Grouse Disease " in the past, 

 for, so far as the Committee's experience extends, it is only the 

 chicks that succumb to this disease, whereas the records of 

 " Grouse Disease " refer only to mortality among adult birds. 



The grounds on which the foregoing conclusions are based 

 form the subject of several long and technical chapters in the 

 Final Report of the Committee, but in the present volume it is 

 not proposed to do more than give a general description of the 

 two principal forms of "Grouse Disease," viz., Strongylosis or 

 " Grouse Disease " proper which kills the adult birds, and 

 Coccidiosis which kills the chicks. 



We have still to discuss the less important diseases of Grouse, 

 of which quite a considerable list may be given, though their 

 interest is greater from an academic point of view than as a 

 serious menace to the well-being of a moor: indeed, with" one 



