126 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



bird to be classed as a case of " the acute form of ' Grouse 

 Disease ' which kills off birds in splendid condition before they 

 have time to waste." But there was some blood in the mouth, 

 and when this clue was followed up by further dissection the 

 root of both lungs was found to have been torn to pieces by 

 splinters of bone from the fracture of two or three vertebrae. 

 There was a fair number of Trichoslrongylus in the caeca, but 

 no sign of disease and no tapeworms. 



A cock Grouse of 26 ounces was forwarded from Scotland with 

 the correspondence quoted below. The case affords an excellent 

 example of the evidence upon which the idea of an acute and 

 very rapidly fatal form of " Grouse Disease" has been founded. 



The gamekeeper writes as follows : 



" I am herewith sending you a Grouse cock which, I think, 

 must have ' gapes ' or something. His neck is very much 

 swollen. This is the third bird of the kind I have seen during 

 the season. We are now seeing diseased Grouse, at least birds 

 having all the appearance of such. In fact, taking all over I 

 never saw worse feathered birds than those we get here. They 

 are especially poorly feathered on the legs." 



This was written at the end of September when the birds 

 were in full moult. This particular bird had still the old claws 

 on, and two primaries of each wing to shed ; and the feet, 

 though apparently unfeathered, were on closer inspection just 

 beginning an excellent growth of feathers. One of its eyes 

 was damaged. Attached to the bird was a note saying that 

 it was a diseased Grouse, notwithstanding that it was making 

 a healthy moult for the winter, and weighed 26 ounces. On 

 dissection the swelling of the neck was found to be due to a 

 mass of loose blood-clot ; the thorax also was full of blood-clot, 

 and the bruising and tearing of the blood-vessels about the root 

 of the neck left no doubt that the bird had met with an accident. 

 There were no tapeworms in the bird at all, and no sign of disease 

 of any sort. And though the caeca contained a good many 

 Trichostrongylus, there was no redness, and the mucosa was 

 quite healthy. 



