CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN THE RED GROUSE 131 



Two cases of damage to the femur may be mentioned : 



Figures 12 and 13 show a united fracture with shortening 

 from 55 mm. to 43 mm. owing to the excessive displacement 

 of the lower portion of bone. The upper fragment forms an 

 angle of 45 degrees with the lower. The bird was a hen found 

 dying from Strongylosis in April, but the fracture must have 

 taken place at least six weeks before. From the complete 

 union effected the bird must have been healthy at the time, 

 but the accident may have been the starting-point of sickness, 

 which resulted eventually in its death. Fig. 14 shows the 

 undamaged femur of the same bird. 



Figure 15 shows a bony outgrowth of the femur due to 

 periostitis resulting probably from some violence which was 

 insufficient to break the bone. 



Damage from internal shot wounds also occurs. An adult Internal 

 cock Grouse of 16 ounces only was found in Nairnshire in wounds. 

 September 1909, sick and unable to fly. It was a bad case of 

 Strongylosis ; but the original cause of its sickness was a 

 number of lead pellets which had some time previously passed 

 through the pectoral muscles, the sternum, and the liver. 



In another case an adult cock Grouse of 18 ounces, in good 

 feather, was found in Yorkshire on September 5th, 1908, sick 

 and unable to fly. The bird was suffering from Strongylosis ; 

 but there were also healed scars of shot wounds. The lungs 

 were somewhat stained post-mortem, but one of them was 

 thick and solid. It was in part a dark, rich, reddish black 

 all through, and in part normal pink. A line of adhesions 

 joined up the second and third lung-lobes, and there were 

 cicatricial puckerings showing where a shot had passed* through. 

 The solidification was due to old bleeding. A shot had also 

 recently passed through the neck, traversing the muscles, and 

 tearing a small hole in the trachea, which had remained unhealed. 

 There was bloody fluid in the mouth and trachea. The skin 

 wound had nearly mended, but bits of feather were found in 

 the tissues of the neck, and the scar outside was matted 

 up with broken feathers. The wound made by the shot 



