CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN THE RED GROUSE 125 



birds should have collided with fences in the same locality, 

 where no new wires or other obstructions had been recently 

 erected. The gamekeeper's view at first was that they all 

 had disease, and outward appearances to some extent supported 

 him. Later on, however, the Blackgame began to leave the 

 valley where they had been feeding on corn, and where the 

 accidents occurred, and once more took to the moors. The 

 keeper reported that the Blackgame on the moors were quite 

 healthy, and continued : "I have been among Blackgame and 

 Grouse for over forty years, and I never saw Blackgame affected 

 the same way. If eating green oats is killing them, they have 

 eaten them for over forty years and were not a whit the worse. 

 I have known Blackgame eat oats from September to December, 

 and not a single bird die from it. What puzzles me is why they 

 are not dying in the next valley (3 miles off). When the Black- 

 game light on the ground they tumble on their heads. If 

 there is a fence hard by they sometimes fly into it. I have 

 seen many birds (recently) showing the same symptoms." 



All this suggests some form of intoxication, and it is just 

 possible that the sodden and half rotten grain eaten by the birds 

 might produce sufficient alcohol by fermenting in the warmer 

 process of digestion, to act upon them in this way. There is, 

 of course, also the possibility that grain soaked in spirit had 

 been purposely put down, but in this case it was improbable. 



It was certain, at anyrate, that the epidemic was an epidemic 

 of accidents and not of disease, 'however suggestive appearances 

 may have been to the contrary. 



Sometimes a collision or other accident may cause fracture 

 of the vertebrae or internal injury. , 



A hen Grouse, of 20 ounces, was " found dead, but quite 

 warm, about a mile from the nearest part of the moor, and at 

 a place to which Grouse never go unless driven off the moor, 

 by storm, which very rarely occurs." This was in Cumberland 

 in March 1909. The bird was quite healthy, in good condition, 

 well feathered, and of a fair weight, and having been found 

 dead with feet and legs well feathered, was just the kind of 



